| History seems to love some people's destinies. It is as though it takes them under its wing, leads them to a destination of which only it has any knowledge and guides them until they fully unfold: a culmination it had planned long ago. Perhaps history recognizes itself more clearly in some faces than in others. But one thing is certain at least: it bears a family resemblance to Vaclav Havel. A modest man, who started out in life like any other man, who studied, improved his mind, worked to make something of himself. Until the day arrived when this involved the liberation of a whole nation, his own nation. At that point, Havel the passer-by became Havel the writer, the unruffled dissident, the inflexible emblem, Havel the hope, towards whom faces turned as to an answer. Then came the liberation of Czechoslovakia. The man who was an apprentice laboratory assistant in 1951 is today President Havel. History is obviously delighted with its pupil. |
Home
Page - Portraits from A to
Z - Shop - Exhibitions
- Photographer
Copyright
- 
Contacts
- 
Credits
- 
Webmaster
Copyright ©: Jaydie Putterman / Pascal Balmer
Texts by Pascal Avot