František Fridrich

21 May 1829, Mělník – 23 March 1892, Prague

František Fridrich came from a wealthy family; his father was the burgomaster of Mělník from 1830. Fridrich began studying law, but dropped out after seven semesters. It is unclear whether he photographed already as a student. In 1855, on his trip around Europe, he attended the Exposition Universelle in Paris, after which he became more interested in photography. From 1856, he had a registered daguerreotype business in Prague and as early as September he organised the first author’s photographic exhibition in Bohemia, which however ended with a scandal because he also exhibited nudes.

Because of disagreements with his family, in 1857 he went to the USA with his Jewish fiancée. He returned to his homeland three years later and on his way there he organised a stereophotographic exhibition in Krakow. He gained valuable experience abroad, which he then used in his business. He made peace with his family in 1861, when his wife was baptised.

After his return from the USA, he turned his family home in Michalská street in Prague into a photographic studio and in 1863 he reopened his business. In the same year, academic painter Jan Maloch began working for him and with time obtained a special status in the company. In 1865, Fridrich was named one of the four most distinguished photographers in Prague by the Viennese magazine Photographische Correspondenz. In 1867, he won his first foreign award in Moscow and after that he received an award at a Paris exhibition. At home, in Austria-Hungary, he received a gold medal for art and science. In 1874, he left the studio in his family home to Jan Maloch and opened a new one, specialising in portraits, at Ferdinandova třída 20. He was one of a few photographers of his time who did not add backgrounds and did not use props.

Around 1870, he was one of the largest publishers of photographs of cities in Austria-Hungary. He had a shop in Na Příkopě street in Prague and branches all over Austria-Hungary, as well as abroad (e.g Paris, London and Turin). He differed from the other photographers not only in low prices, but also in that his main source of income were not portraits, but utilitarian and outdoor photographs. In 1889, at the age of sixty, he officially closed his business and focused on writing, e.g. publishing the German-language travelogue A Trip Around Bohemia.

František Fridrich photographed famous people and rich clientele especially in traditional Bohemian spa towns, which is why his studio had branches in Karlovy Vary and Mariánské Lázně. In Teplice, where he also frequently photographed, especially during the spa season, he organised private courses in photography. He did portraits primarily because they ensured a steady income, but he was especially interested in taking photographs of monuments and landscapes. Owing to photographs of skaters and rowers, which were his passion, he may be regarded as one of the first Czech sports photographers. Apart from Wilhelm Horn, František Fridrich was the only 19^th-century Czech photographer of world renown.