Jana Stross is a photographer and nurse...
...who was born on September 7, 1973 in Ostrava into a teaching family, a family with a rich cultural and artistic life, especially art, music and dance.
Despite all the efforts of those closest to her, she decided not to continue the family tradition of teachers and graduated as a nurse from the Secondary Medical School in Nový Jičín.
She fell into photography only in 2006, when she got a small Panasonic compact camera. As she has a positive relationship with technical things, she began to research it in detail and discovered that a photo is not just a printed rectangle measuring 13x18 cm, but that it is an amazing medium with an endless range of creative possibilities...
The center of gravity of her inspiration and photographic work lies in the medical environment - her collection of pictures from hospitals are always very suggestive. The stories associated with the photographs bear a powerful statement not only about demanding professions, but also about the general reflection on the value of human life and health.
"Since 2006 I have been taking documentary and reportage photographs mainly in hospital environments. However, I do not photograph the pain and suffering of patients, because I believe that whatever we devote our energy to grows stronger. So I turned my lens in the opposite direction and began photographing the work, lives, and relationships of my colleagues: doctors, nurses, orderlies, carers, paramedics, and everyone else who helps people in need." the autor reveals.
Her second set of black-and-white documentary portraits of
operating surgeons, entitled Colleagues, won numerous awards at
international and domestic photography competitions, such as the International
Photography Awards Los Angeles, London International Creative Competition,
Great Photo Awards Portrait World Athens or Czech Art Photo Zlín. Even though
the photos are black and white, they convey emotions to us in a gentle and
tender way, images and stories that take place in situations that are not
always rosy...
On the contrary, the images from everyday life, which make up a smaller part of her work, were selected and published by the American art magazine Edge Of Humanity Magazine.
Jana has had several group and solo exhibitions, e.g. Mánes Exhibition Hall Prague, House of Lucie Gallery Budapest or Central South University Changsha.
The files Operating room and Colleagues can be seen in large-format printed form at the University Hospital Brno, where they form a permanent exhibition - symbolically, they returned to the places where they were created...
The media:
2025 - Angel from the operating room - article in the Aha! newspaper link
- Photos from hospital backstage of JANA STROSS - interview for Digital FOTO magazine link
2024 - hosted by VERUM PHOTO link
- Open ART Fest 2024 link
2022 - interview in podcast Schůzky Tomáše Berana link
- the art magazine Edge of Humanity Magazine published a selection of images from the "From Life" series link
Other:
2025 - member of the FIAP (Fédération Internationale de l'Art Photographique) and Country representative FIAP IMPC (International Medical Photographers Club) for Czech republic link
- member of the CFFU (Czech Federation of Photographic Art) link
2024 - 2022 she was a member of the Club of Moravian Photographers, z.s. Brno (hereafter CMP)
2015 - founded the Facebook group Foto - Líšeň and a year later registered association of the same name Foto - Líšeň, z.s. of which she is the chairperson link
2015 - workshop Jan Šibík (We take photos with a mobile phone)
2009 - co-founded the photography group 28mm
2011 - 2009 she graduated from photography workshops of Antonín Kratochvíl
(Under the surface and Selection), Jan Pohribný (Light in the landscape) and
Jiří Turek (Portrait, fashion, nude)
2008 - Photogenia Brno (Introduction to creative photography)