Tichy was an eccentric. He was held prisoner for almost a decade in Soviet labor camps just for that—being an eccentric, falsely accused of dissidence.
Upon his release in the early 70s he wandered his small town in rags pursuing his voyeuristic obsession with the female form by photographing women unawares in the streets, shops and parks, through windows and fences, with cameras he fashioned out of tin cans, children’s eyeglass lenses and other junk he’d pick up while wandering.
Of his technical methods, Tichy has said, “First of all, you have to have a bad camera”, and, “If you want to be famous, you must do something more badly than anybody in the entire world.”He’s a camera. He’s my hero.
