Czech photographer Oldrich Skacha dies at 72
PRAGUE (AP) — Oldrich Skacha, a Czech photographer whose pictures captured late President Vaclav Havel and the dissident movement in the communist Czechoslovakia, has died.
Prague's Vaclav Havel Library announced Skacha's death Saturday without details. Czech public television says Skacha died Saturday from an unspecified long illness. He was 72.
After the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, Skacha was banned by the hard-line communist regime and joined the dissidents around Havel at the early 1970s. Only he and his colleague, Bohdan Holomicek, systematically photographed the activities of the movement that significantly contributed to the collapse of communism.
Following the 1989 Velvet Revolution when Havel was elected the president, Skacha became his personal photographer. His photos were put on display at exhibitions in Vienna, Paris, New York City and other places around the globe.
