In Our Faces Exhibition
Monday, September 26, 2005 11:45 AM

Since the fall of communism in 1989, pornographic and sexually explicit ads have problematically bombarded the Czech Republic on billboards, metro advertisements and magazines. Beth Lazroe, a Prague-based American photographer, was inspired to draw attention to the problem by Czech friends who complained of the prevalence of such advertisement in the city. Her exhibition, “In Our Faces: Visual Assault on the Streets of Prague,” is composed of 50 large-scale photographs of sexually explicit and degrading advertising which opened in early September in Prague City Hall, Old Town Square. It is a response to the degradation suffered by women, men and children who encounter the use of the human body as a sexual advertising tool.

Lazroe’s exhibit opened in conjunction with a September 8th conference attended by representatives from governmental and non-governmental agencies, organizations and the public. In the exhibition Lazroe’s two major objectives were: to provide a greater awareness regarding the impact of gender-based advertising; and, to stimulate discussion of the connections between the use of degrading images and the rise of domestic violence, dangerous lifestyles and trafficking in women.

Prague authorities are taking this problem very seriously and Miroslav Skelnar, vice director of Prague City Hall notes the exhibition proves an awareness of the problem which is a start toward resolution.

Compiled from:

"Czech Exhibit Show Ads That Degrade Women," Dinah Spritzer, http://www.womensenews.org/, September 26, 2005.

"In Our Faces: Visual Assault on the Streets of Prague." http://www.inourfaces.cz