With Them and Without Them, an exhibition of photographs by Dana Kyndrova, marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the departure of the Soviet army from the Czech Republic. It presents two cycles of photographs – one taken at the time in 1990-91, the other twenty-five years later (that is, very recently), when she revisited the same places with her camera. In the early 90s Kyndrova spent several months documenting a critical phase in modern Czech and Slovak history: the ending of the ‘temporary’ presence of Soviet troops on Czechoslovak soil. Her aim was not to provide a precise, detailed record of the withdrawal, but to capture the atmosphere of the Soviet barracks, which for her emblemized in concentrated visual form the beginning of the end of the Soviet empire. The misery and apathy of rank-and-file soldiers set against a background of tattered communist slogans not only symbolize the agonies endured under the totalitarian system; they also arouse our sympathy for ordinary people who are often no more than pawns in the great game of politics. Twenty-five years later Dana Kyndrova returned to the same areas – Ralsko and Milovice – to enrich her collection of images with a contemporary perspective on the Soviet mission in our country.

Leica Gallery Prague published eponymous catalogue to the exhibition.

More about Dana Kyndrová: With Them and Without Them... Event www