Bohumila Bloudilová

19 March 1876, České Vrbny (now České Vrbné, a part of České Budějovice) – 11 August 1946, Kolín

Bohumila Bloudilová graduated from a girls’ secondary school in Kolín. She became a retoucher in František Krátký’s studio probably when she was only 18 and later she was also the shop manager. When she turned 30, she decided to become independent, registering her own business in April 1906. Her studio was located on the corner of the building in the street Na Hradbě Přemysla Otakara II no. 73b (she bought the building in 1910). It was equipped for photographing in daylight, its measured 60 square metres and it had a glass wall facing north. Although in Prague there were already studios managed by women, in a small city such as Kolín, a woman who owned her own company was rather rare. Bloudilová named the studio Rafael after one of her ancestors, photographer Bohuslav Rafael. The name, however, caused a dispute with the managers of the Brno studio with the same name, founded by Karel Klíč in 1864. The Chamber of Commerce and Trade in Prague decided against Bloudilová’s claim and she changed her studio’s name into Rafaela. She also often used only her first name. In her studio, she made portraits of prominent figures of Kolín’s cultural life, which increased her social standing. Her works were classic studio photographs characteristic of the time, with the usual props, in which elegance of the time is visible, but she also made group photographs, even in exteriors. She ran the studio for 26 years, shutting it down in July 1932.

In the 1930s, she became more active in politics – she was an active member of Czechoslovak National Democracy and a member of its local executive committee in Kolín.

She was a cousin of the photographer Josef Sudek, who became acquainted with photography in her studio when he was still a child. The families often visited each other and the Sudek family had their portraits made in her studio. Sudek’s younger sister Božena even worked in the studio as an assistant and retoucher.