Ignac Schachtl
(1840 - 1911)

Ignac Schachtl alias Hynek Sechtl was born in the year 1900, a year after the date of the discovery of photography. His father was a miller from Prague. He wanted his son to become a business-man, but he instead became a photographer, a practice he much preferred. At the age of 26 he received sanction for his line of work from Kladno.

The job was not easy in the early days of photography. Before taking a photograph, one had to wash a 24 x 30 cm piece of glass in cholodium solution. While it is still wet, one had to expose it. Then it must dry in a darkroom. The required exposure time for this film could be up to one minute. For this reason he had to stop to whole square. Because he looked so strange, he was lucky he was able to pursuade everyone to stand still for so long a time.

His interests became more varied and he began to try new things. When he heard of Dallmayer's Objective, he decided to go to London to purchase it. He also did his own experiments, including a photo montage in which he appears as a laboratory assistant and retuser (on the left). This montage is most likely the first of its kind. He is also a pioneer in the field of photojournalism.

He lived a rather nomadic lifestyle, going between Plzen, Prachatice, Nepomuk and to Tabor. In the latter town he met his wife Katerina, who, because her skill with money, managed all familial economic affairs. Thus he decided to stay with her. After their marriage Schechtl became an amateur actor, founded a fisherman's club and he took many photographs of events in Tabor.

Most of the significant events in the lives of the Schechtl family occurred during the 1870's. Ignac's mother died and his 60 year old father married a 17 year old girl by whom he had a child within a year. In the year 1977 Ignac also had a son, and that same day he was sitting in the Hotel Jelen where he ate supper. There he met Jan Voseck who came to Tabor with only a horse and carriage. Ignac spoke with this man and found that they shared an interest in photography. In the year 1895 they renamed Ignac's firm to Schectl and Voseck.

A few months after the discovery of the art of cinematography, Ignac produced a film projector (on the right). But it was not working as he desired so he went to Vienna to improve upon his design. Originally he had thought he would only be in Vienna for a few days, but as it turned out, he was there a number of months. From there he mailed his dirty clothes and worn out shoes back to Tabor. No one knows whether or not Ignac was the first man in Czech to display films. He toured many cities with his projector. Interest began to wain so he started adding X-Ray images to the shows.

In the year 1908, Ignac and his son constructed a new studio -- one of the biggest south of Bohemia -- but the communists destroyed this building. In its place the built they Hotel Palcat.

The communists found in Ignac's archives some compromising photographs, so they made mirrors from most of archive. But still thousands of the photographs have survived. These pictures show much about Ignac's personality and sense of humor.

Ignac Schachtl's homepage
Gallery

Copyright(C) 1996-1999 Jan Hubicka

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