Vilém Heckel - legendary Czech photographer

Vilém Heckel (21 May 1918 in Plzeň – 31 May 1970 in Huascarán) was a Czech photographer. He devoted himself mainly to landscape photography, with special focus on the photography of mountains. In 1970, he died at Huascarán, Peru. Vilém Heckel was one of the founders of the genre of industrial and promotional photography in Czechoslovakia. (Wikipedia)

Vilém Heckel began his career as industrial and promotional photographer. But his real love was nature and mountains.

If there is a person in Czech photography who has indelibly left his mark on Czech and world photography with his specific work, it is Heckel. His essential love of nature and sport gave him a lifelong theme – mountains. Vilém Heckel – mountain photographer.  Mountains also became his destiny.

In 1958 and 1962 he participated in expeditions to the Caucasus, and in 1965 he was a member of the first Czechoslovak expedition to the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan. Five years later he participated in the Czechoslovak expedition to Peru.

It was May 1970 when an expedition of fifteen Czechoslovak climbers said goodbye in Lima, Peru, and set off towards the mountains to climb Huascarán. None of them returned home. The oldest member was photographer Vilém Heckel.

The natural disaster that befell the Czechoslovak climbers is the largest in the Western Hemisphere. In total, it devastated an area of ​​83,500 km2. Around 75,000 people died, and 200,000 were left homeless. Eighty percent of the buildings were destroyed. That same day, news of this enormous tragedy spread around the world. People in Czechoslovakia still believed for a few days that the members of the expedition were alive. However, this hope was definitively buried by the statement of the leader of the Chilean rescue expedition that went to the scene of the accident. Together with the Chairman of the Peruvian Andinist Club, they confirmed that none of the participants had survived the disaster.

In 2021 was an exhibition in Lima 

His photographs of mountains and landscapes are still among the most beautiful and enchanting ever taken.

           Thanks for reading

                                           Margaret

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vil%C3%A9m_Heckel#Works

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