This year on 14 th November, five years have passed since the death of Ladislav Sitenský, one of our greatest photographers. His uniqueness is also testified by the fact that after him it was named the asteroid No. 5998, which had been discovered by the astronomer Antonín Mrkos in Kleť in September 1986.

Ladislav was born on 7 th August 1919 in Prague in Královské Vinohrady. Already at basic school and then as well at grammar school he used to meet his fellow students - the future notable artist ́s personalities of that time such as Radovan Lukavský, Václav Voska and many others. In 1933 his father bought him a small camera and one year later he started publishing his works and taking photos for the magazine Ozvěny or Ahoj na neděli, where there was published his reportage of T. G. Masaryk ́ s funeral. After the final upper-secondary leaving examination in 1938 he started to study architecture at ČVUT and at the same time he also attended the course of architecture at the French institute of Ernst Denis. In his photos he captured the arrival of German occupiers in Prague in 1939. After closing the universities he had to finish prematurely his first exhibition of photographs in the building of architecture in Dejvice. He was arrested and after setting him free by Gestapo in August 1939 he succeeded in leaving by the express train for Paris and

from there to Quiberon. There he met again his summer “love” Paulette Bosch, who married to him a couple of years later. After ordering the mobilisation in France he joined the army with the general Šnejdárek in Vernon and after receiving the call-up order he left for the town of Agde. In his war cycles he captured the fights at the Western front, which he took part in as a soldier of the Czechoslovak foreign army. In addition to Erich Auerbach he was one of the most notable Czech photographers of World War II. In 1945 he returned to his motherland and started to devote professionally to photography. Other important subject of his was the landscape photography and Prague. He is a holder of many high military awards and prestigious artistic appreciations.

Alice Braborcová