Photos capture the atmosphere of Baťa factories

Prague - Students and teachers from the Czech and German school are exhibiting photographs in Prague, which they created in the Zlín shoe factories. They focused on that part of the Baťa complex that has been functioning in almost its original state since the 1920s.
    It is the rubber footwear factory, and therefore the exhibition is named 137°, after the temperature at which rubber, as a basic material for the production of gum, gains its resistance to external influences.
    The exhibition is simultaneously taking place at the Czech Centre Prague on Rytířská Street and at the Goethe Institute on Masaryk Waterfront, and will last until January 4.
    The creation of the photographs was preceded by three workshops from 2005 to 2007, which were held in the premises of the Novesta footwear company in Zlín. The company continues a long-standing tradition of Baťa products.
    The authors of the photographs are students and teachers from Tomas Bata University and Fachhochschule Dortmund. A reprise of the exhibition in Germany is planned, and a Czech-German catalog featuring a selection of photographs will be published.
    The Baťa company in Zlín became famous due to the expansion of footwear worldwide. But it was not only the production and sale of shoes that was exceptional, but also the progressive approach of Tomáš and Jan Antonín Baťa, who supported the development of advertising design, photography, and film, among other things. They invited artists and filmmakers to Zlín to create often groundbreaking works. Among those given the opportunity was, for example, Alexander Hackenschmied, later a world-renowned photographer and filmmaker, as well as the classics of Czech cinema Karel Zeman and Hermína Týrlová.
    The project of the Czech and German university aimed to build upon the famous tradition of Zlín design and photography. Due to historical circumstances, in one part of the Zlín site where rubber footwear was produced, production remained nearly in its original state. Most of the machines still in use are from the 1920s.
    These conditions provided the creators with unique visual material, which they processed in various ways. Each author also chose different expressive means. The exhibition includes various photographic genres: architecture, portrait, social portrait, still life, documentary and staged photography, and more.