Rybář na Vltavě

In this image, the single figure is overpowered by the bridge, highlighting an overall theme of solitude in this composition. A single boat in the background mirrors the figure in the foreground, perhaps suggesting that the haunting feeling of loneliness is not a unique one. Those passing by on the bridge are reinforcing a theme of isolation, and they are shown in profile, not glancing down below the bridge. Unlike Chochola’s other figural works in this exhibition, the silhouette of the man is not the central focus of the photograph. The bridge is much higher than the figure while seeming to be so close to the figure sitting, a feeling that Chochola could have been experimenting with—wanting to be a part of the greater photographic scene but being held back by the political situation he lived in. [Abigail Bresler, 'Fisherman on the River Vltava / Rybář na Vltavě' in "Suppression, Subversion, and the Surreal: The Art of Czechoslovakian Resistance," (Los Angeles: USC Fisher Museum of Art, 2019) 80.]