Iren Stehli's Photographic Retrospective at Brigitte Weiss Galerie Captures Czech Life Under Socialism

From January 16 to March 7, 2009, the Brigitte Weiss Galerie in Zurich hosted an extensive exhibition by Swiss photographer Iren Stehli. This showcase highlighted her black-and-white images portraying life in Czechoslovakia during the normalization era following the Prague Spring. Stehli moved to Prague in 1974 to study at FAMU. Her notable works encompass series such as A Farm in North Bohemia (1975) and a 25-year documentation of Libuna, a Czech Roma woman. The exhibition featured 20"x24" prints, although reviewer Olga Stefan pointed out a lack of contextual information. Stehli's photographs poignantly reflect the dignity and poverty of socialist Czechoslovakia, accompanied by two anthologies illustrating her unique photographic narrative style.