Ivan Pinkava was born in Náchod, northeast Bohemia, in 1961. He graduated from a secondary school specializing in graphic art, and took his post-secondary training at FAMU, Prague, in art photography. Free photography. He is especially interested in tle intrinsicaly ambiguous character of human affected by such condition of suffering from it. Pinkava regularly exhibits in Europe and the United States. His works are part of many public collections both in tle Czech Republic and abroad. In 2005 he was appointed the head of tle Studio of Photography at tle Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague.

Collections [a selection]

  • Kinsey Institute Art Collection
  • Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
  • Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne
  • Gernsheim Collection, Austin, Texas
  • Victoria & Albert Museum, London
  • Maison Européene de la Photographie, Paris
  • Museum of Fine Arts of Houston
  • Collection of PPF, Prague
  • Museum of Art, Olomouc
  • Museum of Decorative Arts (UMPRUM), Prague
  • Moravian Gallery, Brno

Publications / books [a selection]

  • Heroes
    Introduction by Martin C. Putna, Prague, Kant, 2004 (Awarded The most beautiful Czech artistic publication of 2004), (Awarded The best photo book published in the central and eastern Europe 2003-2004 at Month of photography Bratislava)
  • Il Nudo, Fra Ideale e Realita
    Galleria d´Arte Moderna, Bologna 2004
  • Gods Becoming Men
    Edward Lucie-Smith, Frissiras Museum, Atheny 2004
  • Političtí vězni 50. let
    Galerie Langhans, Prague 2003
  • Das Lexikon der Fotografen 1900 bis Heute
    Knaur, Germany, 2002
  • Česká a slovenská fotografie 80. a 90 let 20. století
    Muzeum umění Olomouc, 2002
  • Black and White Photography
    James Luciana, Rockport Publishers, Inc., Gloucester, 2000
  • Czech Photography of the 1990s
    Vladimír Birgus, Kant, Prague, 1999
  • Memento Mori
    V. Jirásek, R. Novák, I. Pinkava, text by Bohdan Chlíbec, TORST, Prague 1998
  • Contemporary Czech and Slovak Photography
    Aperture # 152, New York, 1998
  • Certainty and Searching in Czech Photography of the 1990s
    Vladimír Birgus, Miroslav Vojtěchovský, Kant, Prague, 1997
  • Dynastie - Ivan Pinkava
    text Josef Kroutvor, ERM, Prague 1994
    (Awarded The most beautiful Czech artistic publication of 1994)
  • The sea inside the skin
    Min Tanaka, photo J. Krejčí and I. Pinkava, TORST, Prague 1992