Selection of photographs by Jaroslav Prokop that have appeared on album covers from the mid- 1970s until today. The photographs are presented alongside the graphic design work of the albums that they accompanied. Graphic design by: Barbara Benish, Karel Haloun, Luděk Kubík, Jaroslav Pejčoch, Bohuslav Šír, Jiří Troskov –
By the 1970s the photographic work of Jaroslav Prokop was already among the most significant records of musical events in our land.
His photographs, of rock concerts and folk groups, that capture the atmosphere in clubs and at large open air festivals (Pezinok 1976 was the theme of his thesis), or portraits of musicans drawn from among his circle of friends, are well-known and are now associated with the name of thier author. Prokop’s work began to appear relativley quickly on the sleeves of LPs (Vladimír Mišík/ They Cut Off the Little Boy’s Hair, 1976) and was in direct contrast to ruling ideas of the time about the proper look of local pop music stairs, who smiled from album covers in full colour and wearing clothes that the Jitex Písek designers decided was youthful. Incidentally, Prokop hasn’t photographed any “popular stars”, and consequently the albums that he worked on over the years are still listened to today.
As of today he has taken part in the graphic design of dozens of album covers, including several that have become part of the history of our rock music.
Jaroslav Prokop is the head of the Studio of Avertising Photography at Thomas Bata University in Zlín.
