Rifo Dobra

Last updated
Rifo Dobra
Rifo Dobra.jpg
Born (1952-04-14) 14 April 1952 (age 72)
NationalityAlbanian
Known for Photography, Collage, Film, Painting
Movement Art photography, Abstraction

Rifo Dobra (born 14 April 1952) is an Albanian photographer from Kosovo.

Contents

Early life and education

Dobra was born in Prishtina, and after finishing secondary school he moved to Czechoslovakia (today's Czech Republic), where he was employed as a camera assistant in the Czechoslovak Television in Prague. From 1972, he was studying camera the Prague Film and TV Academy (FAMU), which he successfully finished in 1978. [1]

Career

Dobra's first attempts at photography began when he was 15. The first publication of his photos in the Yugoslavian press were followed by a participation in many national exhibitions. Besides advertisement and creations of covers and calendars, Dobra inclined more and more towards artistic photography, which gradually became his main focus. The gold medal in the national competition and silver one in an international one were followed by his first personal exhibition in Prishtina, in 1977,[ citation needed ] and several other exhibitions in Czechoslovakia (Prague), Germany (Kassel), and other European countries.

A poster to one of author's exhibitions in Prague Rifo Dobra - Prague exhibition 1983.jpg
A poster to one of author's exhibitions in Prague

In 1991, Dobra founded the first commercial photographic gallery in Czechoslovakia, [2] which organized or participated in several exhibitions during the 1990s. Some of them were beneficially oriented, for example the 1999 exhibition, which raised funds for the displaced refugees of the Kosovo war, or the 2000 exhibition raising funds for the victims of breast cancer in the Czech Republic. [3]

Certificate from the 1999 exhibition in Czech Senate Senat-ExodusKosovo1999.jpg
Certificate from the 1999 exhibition in Czech Senate

Works

Dobra creates almost exclusively hand-coloured black-and-white photographs, where the hand colouring plays a specific role as a means of expression. [4] Dobra's works are often still lifes, featuring abstract themes of life (egg), contrasting elements (slice of a watermelon pressed into the carrier of an old bicycle) and surreal compositions, sometimes distantly inspired by works of classical surrealist painters such as René Magritte. Dobra’s photography is closely tied to the poetics of melancholy, often exhibited by using an old, rotten wall with a falling, mouldy plaster as a background, [5] or other worn down items (not rarely in contrast to things colourful, new and fragile).

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josef Koudelka</span> Czech–French photographer (born 1938)

Josef Koudelka is a Czech-French photographer. He is a member of Magnum Photos and has won awards such as the Prix Nadar (1978), a Grand Prix National de la Photographie (1989), a Grand Prix Henri Cartier-Bresson (1991), and the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography (1992). Exhibitions of his work have been held at the Museum of Modern Art and the International Center of Photography, New York; the Hayward Gallery, London; the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; and the Palais de Tokyo, Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Saudek</span> Czech photographer

Jan Saudek is an art photographer and painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juraj Jakubisko</span> Slovak film director (1938–2023)

Juraj Jakubisko was a Slovak film director. He directed fifteen feature films, between 1967 and 2008. He often took on the dual role of cinematographer, and is often also credited as a screenplay writer as he usually co-writes or writes the scripts of his movies. In 2000 he was named Best Slovak Director of the 20th century by film critics and journalists. His work is often described as magical realism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Academy of Performing Arts in Prague</span> University in the Czech Republic

The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague is a university in the centre of Prague, Czech Republic, specialising in the study of music, dance, drama, film, television and multi-media. It is the largest art school in the Czech Republic, with more than 350 educators and researchers, and 1500 students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karel Cudlín</span> Czech photographer

Karel Cudlín is a Czech photographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Markéta Luskačová</span> Czech photographer

Markéta Luskačová is a Czech photographer known for her series of photographs taken in Slovakia, Britain and elsewhere. Considered one of the best Czech social photographers to date, since the 1990s she has photographed children in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and also Poland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie Šechtlová</span> Czech photographer (1928–2008)

Marie Šechtlová was a Czech photographer, one of the proponents of the "poetry of everyday" style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jindřich Štreit</span> Czech photographer and pedagogue (born 1946)

Jindřich Štreit is a Czech photographer and pedagogue known for his documentary photography. He concentrates on documenting the rural life and people of Czech villages. He is considered one of the most important exponents of Czech documentary photography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karel Plicka</span> Czechoslovak photographer, director, cinematographer, folklorist and pedagogue

Karel Plicka was a Czechoslovak photographer, film director, cinematographer, folklorist, and pedagogue. He is considered a founder of Slovak film education and filmmaking. He helped establish the genre of ethnographic film in Czechoslovakia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viktor Kolář</span> Czech photographer (born 1941)

Viktor Kolář is a Czech photographer. Kolář, along with Jindřich Štreit, is considered one of the most important exponents of Czech documentary photography. In his works, Kolář focuses mainly on depicting urban life in the Ostrava region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karel Kuklík</span> Czech photographer (1937–2019)

Karel Kuklík was a Czech photographer and one of the representatives of Informel in Czech fine art photography. He was classified as an artist influenced by abstract and surrealist tendencies and as an artist who creates works with a strong existentialist atmosphere. In 2000 he co-founded the photographic group Český dřevák.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jaroslav Beneš</span>

Jaroslav Beneš is a Czech photographer and co-founder of the photographic group called Český dřevák.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emila Medková</span> Czech photographer

Emila Medková, née Emila Tláskalová was a Czech photographer, one of the important exponents of the Czech art photography in the second half of the 20th century. Her work was influenced by Surrealism. She was the wife of painter Mikuláš Medek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petr Šálek</span> Czech photographer (born 1948)

Petr Šálek, MFA, QEP is a Czech photographer. He is mostly known for work in commercial and fashion photography, but also produces work as an experimental photographer. He does panoramic photography and high pigment quality printing. Wide-angle photography, composition, lighting and geometric landscape are Šálek's signature features.

Milan Pitlach was a Czech architect and photographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vladimír Smutný</span> Czech cinematographer

Vladimír Smutný is a Czech cinematographer. He is an eight-time winner of the Czech Lion Award for Best Cinematography. He was also a cinematographer of Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film winner Kolya (1996).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pavel Vácha</span> Czechoslovak photographer (1940–2021)

Pavel Vácha was a Czech photographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Václav Jírů</span> Czech photographer and writer (1910-1980)

Václav Jírů was a Czech photographer and writer. He is known for his photographs of Prague. In 1957, he founded the quarterly photography magazine Fotografie and served as its editor-in-chief until 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pavel Dias</span> Czech photographer (1938–2021)

Pavel Dias was a Czech photographer and university teacher. He was born in Brno and often spent his childhood in Brankovice. After studying at the Secondary school of Art and Design in Brno, where he met his later wife Hilda Misura-Dias, he continued to the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU), which he completed in 1964 after a short break.

Bohumil Mazánek is a Czech diplomat and the current Czech Ambassador to Kosovo. Previously from 2014 to 2018 Mazánek served as Czech Ambassador to Lithuania.

References

  1. "List of dissertations at the Department of Cinematography, FAMU Prague". Film Academy of Performing Arts Prague. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
  2. Birgus, Vladimír; Vojtěchovský, Miroslav (2006). Certainty and Searching in Czech Photography of the 1990s (Jistoty a hledání v české fotografii 90. let) (in English and Czech). Prague: Kant. p. 32. ISBN   80-901903-6-7.
  3. "Mamma Help Yearly Summary, 2000" (PDF). Mamma Help. Retrieved October 2, 2016.
  4. "Rifo Dobra v Praze". Československá fotografie (in Czech). 12/1986. Panorama, Prague. ISSN   0009-0549.
  5. Huber, Jörg Adrian. "Rifo Dobra". Československá fotografie (in Czech). 11/1983. Panorama, Prague. ISSN   0009-0549.