about
5 years ago, at the suggestion of a friend, I realised that carrying a camera around really eases the experience of the sensory overload that comes with living in a big city. The camera's a therapeutic tool. Paradoxically, it gives me the illusion that I'm in control of what I'm doing while at the same time making me realise that things are continually getting out of my hands.
I'd like to think that the experience of taking photos helps me grow over time. Especially in street-photography, getting a good shot requires patience. In my personal life, I often have too clear an idea of what I want and how I should get there (frustratingly, I hardly ever do). Shooting out on the streets is a pleasant antithesis to that as it requires an openness to experience and a willingness to let go of a whole lot of preconceived ideas. In that way, it's a balancing act to my life outside of photography.
All photographs copyright David Gaberle 2017
2017
_cover and 12-page interview in the Czech FOTO magazine
_one of the most successful Instagram takeovers for The Photographer's Gallery in London
_Metropolight was published online by The Guardian and the British Journal of Photography
_received an assignment from the Prague Institute of Urban Planning and Development with an exhibition and a catalogue to be published in 2018
_the Kickstarter campaign for Metropolight reached almost three times its goal and was backed by 2 Magnum photographers and further supported by Antonín Kratochvíl (co-founder of VII Agency), Michael Mack (of MACK) and George Georgiou
_launched a Kickstarter campaign for my first book, it will be printed March/April
2016
_started teaching workshops and give talks on street photography
_participated in a Cetera Fotografie exhibition funded by the Eleutheria Foundation, showing 18 under-40 photographers from the Czech Republic
_a number of printed publications showcased my work
_started working on my first photography book called Metropolight
_a photograph from Tokyo published on The New York Times website
_selected as the youngest of Fujifilm's 100 X-Photographers
_participated in a workshop with Harry Gruyaert
_participated in an international exhibition held at the Fujifilm Square in Roppongi, Tokyo (Japan)
2015
_selected for an international street-photography exhibition in Lublin, Poland, and published in the book that accompanied it
_became an official Fujifilm X-Photographer
_travelled for 6 months through some of the world's major cities to work on a book (distance walked: 3600km)
_finished a degree in anthropology, with a dissertation on the topic of "how does the autoethnographic aspect of street photography enrich our understanding of urban mentalities?"
2012-2014
_2014: participated in a workshop with Gueorgui Pinkhassov, travelled for 3 months (Greece, Georgia, Japan) to test if I can shoot for longer periods of time
_2013: moved to London, underwent a workshop with Maciej Dakowicz from the In_Public Collective in Albania
_2012: bought a Fujifilm X100 and my first photobook