Jitka Hanzlova

Born in 1958, Jitka Hanzlova grew up in Communist Czechoslovakia before fleeing her home country and seeking asylum in Germany in 1982. Influenced by her own life experiences in exile as well as recollected childhood memories, her practice revolves around photographic series that examine the identity of individuals, primarily women, set in their local environments. Hanzlova uses a strict vertical format to capture her subjects and pays particular attention to the effects of light, using its transcendental qualities to confer the significance of each subject's surroundings. Playing with both intimacy and distance, Hanzlova captures the provocative singularity of an individual set against the sociological categories defined by his or her environment.

Hanzlova gained international recognition for her series Rokytnik (1990—1994) and Female (1997—2000). She has received numerous awards in the field of photography including, the Prix Otto Steinert in 1993, the European Photography Award in 1995, the Grand Prix Award in 2003, and the 2007 BMW—Paris Photo Prize for Contemporary Photography.