Backtrack to 1998, when Manda and I went to Prague for our first trip away together (this was before Prague transformed into the stag do capital of Europe!). One of my favourite photos from the trip was one taken in a Metro (underground) station. Not a setting that you’d immediately think of as offering a great photo opportunity, but Prague’s Metro stations are quite something to look at:

Last year (2006) we went back to Prague and on the final day there we went back underground for the sole purpose of taking photos of the stations on one of the lines. Literally, it was a case of stop, hop out, take photos, then back on to the next line then repeat all over again.  I was really pleased with the end results.

Today, I received a really touching letter from someone about these photos. I’ll not paraphrase, but simply quote the relevant section of the mail:

I ran in to your shots of the Prague Metro on Monday and wonder if there is any way I could purchase some or all at the original resolution so that I can make some high quality prints.

First, an explanation.

My wife is Vitezslava Otrubova, who is a graphics designer and photographer. She left Prague in 1968, just a few days after the Russian tanks rolled in, at age 21.  She ended up years later in Seattle with me.

Her father is Jaroslav Otruba, the architect of the set of stations that you photographed. He has taken me on exhausting walking tours of Prague, and has a few of those anodized aluminum panels in his apartment.

Dr. Otruba suffered a stroke about five years ago at the age of 85 and has been on the decline ever since.
My wife has gone back to Prague every year and had to see a talented architect and artist, who was always working, trapped in a body that couldn’t speak, couldn’t write, and couldn’t draw.

We got a call three weeks ago from my mother in law, saying that Dr. Otruba had taken a turn for the worse and was hospitalized.
Even though my wife had last visited Prague in October, I encouraged her to immediately fly back.

This Monday, Dr. Otruba died of pneumonia in the hospital.  This is an bittersweet event, in that the mind and spirit have finally been released from a body that trapped them for five years.

I want to mark his passing in some small way, by celebrating his most recognized works.
I would like to, with your permission, make two sets of high quality prints  of your Prague Metro photographs and present them my wife and her mother.

My wife will be returning to Seattle on February 27th.  We will be taking some of Dr. Otruba’s ashes to Orcas Island, a place he loved when he was alive.  If you are agreeable to this project, I will present the photographs to her when we have that small family ceremony.

How nice is that? Naturally, I said yes (and of course at no charge). All I asked was that I could see a picture of what they did with the photos, and if possible  – and if it were deemed appropriate – to get a picture of Dr Otruba’s daughter being presented with the photos that I took because they were so striking in design.

I love that Flickr allows me to share photos like this and the fact that I’ve been able to connect the Czech designer behind this set photos with his daughter in Seattle from beyond the grave. The sender of the original email (Dr Otruba’s son-in-law) has since sent me a picture of the designer, presumably before the stroke took its toll, and it was really special to put a face to the name, a name that I had not known just a day before, but whose work I’d raved about to many people since coming back from Prague.

Can you recall a time when you’ve felt like you’ve really made something special happen because of something you’ve done on the Internet? If so, I’d love to hear your story.

Just a quick note to say I’ve had a little bit of time off and have just come back from Prague, my second time there. In traditional fashion, I’ve spent far too much of my free time after the event documenting it before it all evaporates. Note: the design of this travelogue isn’t up to much (I simply grabbed an old one and re-purposed it), but it’s the content I was really interested in. So, if you’re interested in finding out about Prague, try one of the links below:

• Prague travel diary
• All the Prague photos
• The Bone Church – photo set
• Prague Metro stations – photo set

I looked at the screen of the digital camera and then put my hand out in front of the camera slightly, just over the top of the lens. It’s a fine art, blocking lens flare like this. My hand was in the picture, so I started moving the hand up, out, a little to the left, back to the right, just trying to find that sweet spot where the building was in view and the lens flare was eliminated. Finally, with my hand out at full stretch just above the camera , I got the correct spot – at last!

It was at this point that I realised I was standing in the streets of Munich doing what appeared to be a Nazi salute to a building that was a significant building in the Third Reich’s past.