Everything is fine in the High Tatras

A review of "Vysoke Tatry Vo Farabnej Fotografii" 

This is a fascinating “coffee table book”, or rather the kind of book tourists expect to buy in gift shops after visiting the local “must see”. This particular memento was published in 1969 in Czechoslovakia! It contains lavish color photos of the High Tatras, a mountain range in northern Slovakia (the Tatras are part of the Carpathians). Apart from the inevitable high hills, there are also photos of mountain climbers, hotels, resorts, flowers, animals and people in what I suppose is typical Czechoslovak 1960's outfits. One photo shows a symbolical cemetery close to a mountain lake. There is almost no Communist propaganda in this volume, despite the fact that Czechoslovakia was invaded by Soviet troops the year before. It's almost as if the author and photographer wanted to evoke a feeling of calm and normality. Or “normalization”, to use the Czechoslovak Communist term…