Jano Pavlík (1963–1988) was a native of the Slovakian city Snina, whom everyone called Giano during the studies at the Prague based school FAMU. He was able to connect a seemingly contradictory: a fantasy world of the raw, unrestrained production and the seemingly "careless" presentation with an urgent message, which later showed such urgency that no one could have recognized before. Together with his future friends, whom traveled with him from eastern Slovakia, he brought a form of latent melancholy into the Czechoslovakian photography, which was successfully masked with carelessness and playfulness – expressions which are frequently connected with the authors of the "Slovakian new wave".

The exhibition is not a tribute in a pathetic reminiscence of an early deceased friend or a late reaction to his photographic beginnings neither creating a visual memorial of a hidden genius. The presented photographs by Jano Pavlík, Rudo Prekop and Peter Župník were emerging in the same time - during their studies in Prague, often together, in an inspiring environment of the big city at night, in nature or the temporary studios at the students residence, therefore it is possible to refer to it as a kind of – sometimes unconscious, sometimes conscious – a three-voiced conversation. The photos are peculiar, from today's point of view sometimes even intertwined in a burdensome manner, and not just in a visual, but also subjective and reminiscent manner. The specific knots are their self-portraits and portraits of each other which were made spontaneously because of a lack of other models.

The aim of this exhibition is to introduce the not so well known and less typical layer of the work by these three members of the generation and instead of displaying "verified" photographic treasures, it would like to offer a psychological view into the vibrant period of their student years spent together, through the debuting artworks, bursting with a genuine visual tension.

Jano Pavlík (* 1963, Snina – † 1988, Prague) after his studies at the Artistic-Industrial Secondary School (Střední umělecko-průmyslová škola) in Košice, Slovakia he came to study at FAMU in Prague in 1982. During a mere six years of intensive photographic creation, he worked on an open series called Ernst and Alica, which fully reflects the artist's complicated personality through its spontaneity and its hidden metaphysicality. He exhibited a further work, a series of 12 original collages with a central, self-portrait motif, on 1 April 1987 at FAMU. The exhibition isn't however, because of its extravagant content and means of installation, acceptable for the school's academic (pedagogical) council. It is shut down after several hours. Pavlík's dynamically developing work is suddenly interrupted by his committing suicide at the start of 1988.

Rudo Prekop (*1959, Košice) studied commercial photography in his hometown at the Artistic-Industrial Secondary School (Střední umělecko-průmyslová škola). He continued his studies at FAMU in Prague (1980–1986). He has lectured there since 1994 and since 2002 has run his own independent studio. From the beginning he has joined expressive elements of staging (in the form of detailed figurines and transitive constructions) with pure photographs of found objects. After Jan Pavlík's death he gathered and processed the latter's artistic legacy. He is co-author and implementer of the original concept and artistic solution for the Andy Warhol Museum in Medzilaborce, Slovakia. He lives and works in Prague. www.blackandwhitephoto.cz

Peter Župník (* 1961, Levoča) studied commercial photography at the Artistic-Industrial Secondary School (SUPŠ) in Košice, Slovakia and at Prague's FAMU (1981–1986). After his initial attempts in the area of photo-reporting, he became one the first Czechoslovak photographers to intervene in photos with a subtle, painter-like technique that both visually and content-wise pushed them beyond the borders of reality. The series dating from 1983 – Praha, paměti noci (Prague, Memory of the Night) – started after walks around the empty city at night. With the help of flash, Župník exposes in his photos banal still-lifes – hidden, yet quiet, celebrations. He has lived and worked in Paris since 1995.