Conversation about artistic photography with the world-renowned photographer Robert Van: for me, the most important thing is freedom.

Robert Vano is a fashion and advertising photographer. He was born on May 5, 1948, in Slovakia in Nové Zámky. After emigrating in the 1970s to the United States, he first worked as a hairdresser and makeup artist, and later as an assistant to fashion photographers such as Horst P. Horst, Marco Glaviano, and Leo Castelli. Since 1984, he has worked as a freelance photographer. He has worked in New York, Paris, Milan, (and currently lives and works in the Czech Republic in Prague). I personally know Robert Vano, whom I have known for many years, and thus I feel exceptionally permitted to use the informal "you" form during this interview. Moreover, he offered to use the informal "you" form with me years ago. He claims it is better, both for work and for relationships between people, especially between people who have a lot to say. I fell in love with Robert's work when I saw his photographic cycle of gardens in Southern France at a villa in magnificent gardens near Christian Dior's. (To that later). He also loves dynamism and timelessness in a photograph just as much as I do. So, a more or less blurred photograph is actually dynamism of movement for us. Robert is extremely hardworking, and I always enjoy meeting him for his honesty, perspective, and mainly his positive thinking.

I know about you, Robert, that you are a citizen of the United States, so I wanted to ask if we should also open some political questions?

I have only one citizenship, and that is American. To that, I only add that we in the USA have quite a few problems of our own in the States. So I think that if the problems in the States were solved, then maybe they would also be solved in other countries. It goes up and down all the time. The 70s were about love and friendship, camaraderie, and now it is simply an angry time, or period.

Wouldn't you then bring back the 60s period of love?

I don't know… It will probably come on its own. It can't be forced. There was in America one leader, Martin Luther King, who said that if a person changes themselves, then they don't have to change the world. And it is very hard to change oneself, because I can't even stop smoking cigarettes, so I can't go and want to change someone else when I can't even change myself.

You are a professional photographer, how do you think photographers are doing here in the Czech Republic?

I think that if a person does it the way they should, then it is the same everywhere and it is going well. My grandmother said that if you want something, then you must pay for it hard, or better, work hard for it. So I am doing well. I no longer have any family, wife, children, nor a Porsche, pool, or airplane, so I can always afford a "májku" (paštika – editor's note) and a roll.

Do you have any pets?

No. I am myself my own pet.

You are a citizen of the United States and live in the Czech Republic, why is that?

I was born in Czechoslovakia and in 1967 I emigrated. This deprived me of nationality and citizenship, and until 1990 I lived only there. Then I traveled between the States and the Czech Republic, as long as my mother was alive. Then they founded the magazine ELLE here and the first editorial team was made up of people who worked for these magazines around the world. So the people in the editorial office were from Australia, Canada, Germany, France, and I was then offered the position of creative director. We all had contracts for two years, and then everyone returned, and only I stayed here. I like Prague, and it is very nice here. Moreover, Prague was in the 90s like a cursed Disneyland, everything was gray, plaster was falling off, and then things started to change.

You once mentioned, when we met at a photography exhibition, that a photographer who wants to pursue artistic or fine art photography should go to Paris for experience. Is that still your view?

I say that because when I was young, my grandmother always said that if you want something, you have to go after it. She also said that in her time, in Austria-Hungary, when a boy turned 15, his father would give him a backpack and send him to Vienna. He would stay there for 10-20 years and then return to the village, knowing 7 languages and having a profession. Here in Prague, I know many young people, and when I ask them, especially Americans, what they are doing here, they say they are studying. I wonder what they can study here that isn't available in America? And they say, "We're working for Budweiser and learning how to make beer." So, if you want to know how to make vodka, you have to go to Russia, for movies you have to go to Hollywood, for photography you have to go to Paris, and for Budweiser, you have to go to České Budějovice.

You are such a positive person and always come up with new projects. What new projects are you planning for the future?

Well, usually others plan them, and I either take them on or I don't. I'm planning a new book for myself, because it's been three years since my last one, "memoris." I have a lot of negatives from the past 50 years. We're also working on an interesting project called the "Platinum Workshop." I started making platinum prints for myself, but it's good that this technique is of interest not only to individuals, but also to entire companies. Otherwise, I don't plan much, because when I was young and wanted to be a photographer, that was the only thing I planned. Of course, I also plan to live a long and healthy life. Things change in every decade, what you want is different. You plan different things when you're in your twenties.

How is Czech photography perceived in America, or even in the world?

Well, I don't know how it is now, because I've been here for a long time, but before, when I was in America, no one knew about Czech photography. Maybe only photographers are aware of it, but ordinary people only see what's happening around them. It's unlikely that anyone there knows about Drtikol, Sudka, or Saudek. It's probably because we're not doing a good enough job of promoting it. For example, in the 1960s, we sold Drtikol's work to Canada, and now we can't even organize an exhibition to celebrate his anniversary. We don't have any proper exhibitions here, like in America or France. If I want to see an exhibition, I have to go to Vienna or Berlin. It's different in the world. When I have an exhibition elsewhere, the gallery makes a living from selling my photographs. So they tell me that their clients like still lifes, and if I want to be exhibited there, I have to photograph still lifes. Here, the galleries are probably state-funded by the city, and they are staffed by old ladies, and they are always closed. When these institutions become private, they will work like ants.

Your exhibition at Mánes was an example for me. You were there every day, greeting visitors. You told them about your photographs, signed their books and postcards that they bought on the spot. That's how it should be everywhere, isn't it?

This isn't entirely my idea. When I spoke with one Polish artist, he told me that if an artist holds an exhibition in Japan, they stay there for the entire duration. You learn a lot there. You find out what people like and what they don't. Regarding my exhibition at Mánes, a magazine wrote that I would be there every day and people would travel from all over the country. It was perhaps the most visited exhibition that month, with around 27,000 visitors. But that was probably because I was actually there. Yes, it's a very good idea.

What is your opinion on modern art, or art in general?

I know nothing about these things and am not familiar with any definitions. I go by my heart and how I feel. But whether it's modern or classical, I don't know. Either I like it or I don't. One thing I really didn't like was the Mona Lisa at the Louvre when I saw it. Mona Lisa—a girl without eyebrows, with a mustache—but people stood there and stared. So I stood there too, and the Mona Lisa didn't interest me; rather, I was interested in why those crowds were standing there and staring. At the end, there was information about Leonardo, and you learned how amazing a person Leonardo da Vinci was and how he outpaced his time. I had a private commission to photograph all the Baroque buildings in the Czech Republic, and I had a year for it. They would have paid several million, but I couldn't photograph them because I couldn't identify a Baroque building. Yes, I could have hired an architect to walk with me, but if I can't do it, I don't do it. For me, freedom is the most important thing in the world. To create from my own inner self. To make a decision, and if I can't do it, I simply don't do it.

Have you thought about exhibiting in fashion in China now?

I had an offer about 4-5 years ago to exhibit in Hong Kong. I was 70 years old, and there's always that little boy inside you who says: "Wow, you'll be in China, you'll go to Hong Kong, you've never been there." And then there's the old, wise man who says: "How will you get there? There's no Pendolino there." So I said I had to check my diary to see if I had free time, even though I did, but I wouldn't say yes right away. So I came home and started figuring out how to get there. There were Czech Airlines flights, which is great, but they go to Moscow and then before Donbas. That was right after they shot down that plane. Then from Moscow to Shanghai on a Russian airline. Well, if it could fly without pilots, then yes. But I certainly won't fly on a Russian plane after that crash and our hockey players dying. What if the pilot is drunk and puts the brake instead of the gas and everyone dies? So I looked for another route. Then there was Prague to Dubai on Czech Airlines and Dubai to Hong Kong on an Indonesian airline. Well, no one needs to shoot those down; they just disappear and are still being searched for. And there's no other way, so I simply didn't go. If I were 20, what would I exhibit there? Photos with young guys with big penises, the Chinese wouldn't buy those. They would exhibit fruit or tulips. So when I can't decide, I write down what I'll get out of it? Will I be younger, taller, healthier, find a girlfriend, win an Oscar, become a millionaire… none of that, so why would I go there? If I want to see China, I'll watch National Geographic and look at a documentary about Shanghai, and I'll be satisfied.

You mentioned a trip, that you don't like traveling?

I like to travel, but it's probably due to age that it's narrowing me down.

I have to compliment you on your wonderful collection, which I once showed to my son, those French gardens by Dior from Southern France. It's something incredibly beautiful. I see it as a golden jewel in your photographic collection. In what years did you take these photos? And were they taken systematically, or randomly?

No, that was in the 1980s, when I was working with Germans. We were taking photos for catalogs and traveling around Europe, and it was agreed that we would be photographing at Dior in Southern France. And we were photographing in those gardens and by the pools, so all of this was created in just one week. And I was also fascinated by those gardens at the time.

Robert, what would you like to wish our General News readers?

I always wish everyone good health. Once, I wished someone good health, and they said, "Add a little luck to that health, because everyone on the Titanic was healthy, but in the end, they drowned, so they needed luck too."

Jan Vojtěch, Editor-in-Chief of General News