An empty room with a tall grid window at the far end and light lying flat across the floor

Mlýnská 14 · first floor · 41 m²

Two north windows and a drying line

No overhead light, no infinity cove, no music. One stool, one chair, one roll of paper, and a kettle that works harder than the camera.

Sheet 014
A dark-haired woman in her thirties holding a small film camera, looking down at it
Hana Vrbová · self-timed, roll 008, frame 12

Who takes the picture

Hana Vrbová

I trained as a printer, not a photographer, which is the wrong way round and explains most of what happens here. Eleven years in a commercial lab in Brno taught me that almost every picture is saved or ruined long after the shutter — and that a sitter who has been told to relax never does.

So the sittings are long and the camera is slow. I shoot on a 1974 body with a broken meter and a 105 mm lens I have never taken off it. The first roll is nearly always wasted. The second one is the reason you came.

Working since
2014 · studio here since 2019
Rolls developed
3 180 and counting
Languages
Czech, English, bad German
Weddings a year
22, never 23

The drawer — frames nobody chose

Every sheet comes back with thirty-five frames unringed. These five are from this year. The reason is printed in the gutter, the way I write it on the sleeve.

A woman in a patterned headscarf turning towards the window
011 · 12Blinked. She hated it and so did I.
A man in a plain white t-shirt photographed head-on against a light wall
009 · 04Too early. He was still being polite.
A man in a brimmed hat and heavy glasses, very close to the lens
012 · 03 ✓He said no. I kept the negative anyway.
A couple standing among flowering branches after a ceremony
012 · 19A branch across her shoulder. My fault.
A blonde sitter against white seamless with her arms folded
011 · 30Sharp, lit, correct, dead.

On a wedding there are two of us

Saturdays only · 10 hours · 14 rolls between us
Hana holding a small film camera at waist height, head down

Hana Vrbová

Camera one · ceremony, portraits, the whole contact sheet

Stands at the back with the long lens. Will not ask anyone to do anything twice.

A bearded man in a denim shirt looking steadily at the camera

Dominik Krejza

Camera two · the room, the hands, everything after dark

Prints the fibre work on Wednesdays. Owns the only clean pair of tongs in the building.

Developed strips of 35mm film curling across a light table

Negatives are filed by roll number and kept seven years. Yours is in the third drawer down.

Visits welcome, Tuesday to Friday

Come and look at the sheets on the wall before you book anything.

There is a chair, there is coffee, and there are eleven years of contact sheets pinned up in rows. Half an hour in that room tells you more than any gallery on a screen.

Arrange a visit
Rates and turnaround →
The room, in numbers
  • Window2 × 2.4 m, north
  • Ceiling3.8 m
  • BackdropsGrey, bone, black
  • DarkroomBehind the curtain
  • Stairs28, no lift, sorry