Ján Galanda

The history of Slovak photography is full of unnoticed, semi-forgotten or completely forgotten figures. However, until recently, only a few were as unknown as Ján Galanda. Like most modern Slovak photographers, Ján Galanda was an amateur; in his civil life he worked as a bank clerk. He didn’t begin to systematically work with photography until the first half of the 1930s, and like the majority of amateur photographers, he mainly documented his leisure time interests and activities, such as travel, hiking and sports. As opposed to most of the shots of this type, Galanda’s photos are created with precision and feature a demanding and at times refined composition. His shots, a kind of Slovak glamour style, were unique in Slovakia. Although Jan Galanda depicted much from the lifestyle of modern times, his photographs remained timeless, splendid, unbiased and “captivated by beauty”.