Želiv Monastery
People of the Hlucín Region
Initially, Sobek's chief interest was socially oriented documentary photography of a humanist orientation - taking documentary photographs of clearly defined topics, that is, photographs about the lives of a specific group of people, in which the depiction of some typical way of life is permeated with a generalizing view of fundamental life values. In this spirit, he made a strong set of photographs about the Premonstratensian monks of the monastery at Želiv and a number of photos from the large project entitled People of the Hlucín Region in the 1990s; his photographs remain among the best works of the Hlucín region ever made by students of the Institute of Creative Photography. In both cases, Sobek gained the trust of the people he wanted to photograph, and entered their private lives, often taking photographs whose directness gives one the impression that the people in front of the lens haven't noticed the photographer at all.
