Michal Lebl, was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. For more than 20 years he lived in United States, mostly in San Diego. Since 2009 he alternated between Prague, Czech Republic and San Diego, USA. In 2017 he moved back to Czech Republic. He got his first camera from his grandpa at the age of 9 (he still has it), so we can say that he is taking pictures for many years. He studied photography with professor Lauschmann in Prague. He started with classical black and white wet process and loved making his black and white enlargements. The second camera was his dad's Zeiss "harmonica". Later he changed to SLRs and went through Exa, Pentax, then changed to and stayed with Canon. He is an early adopter of digital photography - through Casio to Sony and back to full frame SLR from Canon.
His "gallery" web site shows a small sample of his work. He loves to travel and this gallery illustrates this point. His first exhibition was in Prague in 1968, and two years later he published his first picture in a magazine. The only magazine covers, up to now, happened to be not on Rolling Stones magazine, but on Orienteering North America, or The Bridge, or on a book cover of the new (far from) the bestseller Shadows of Al-Bara. He is contributing regularly to this international quarterly magazine Bridge. His photographs are ocassionally on display in galleries in San Diego and Prague. If you are interested in any of his pictures, you can contact him at michallebl@gmail.com. To follow what he is doing photographically, go to his albums at Google or to see his videos go to YouTube.
He was a member of Spanish Village Art Center Association in San Diego, San Diego Art Institute, Photographic Society of America, and member of Darkroomers Club in San Diego. You could see his work in Spanish Village or in The Photo Arts Buildings in Balboa Park in San Diego. He was a holder of Harris Wallace (monochrome photography) and Pitt Warner (color photography) trophies for year 2008, 2009, and again for 2010.
In 2012 he discovered gallery at Temecula, California, which could produce his pictures by infusing the pigments into metalic surface and he fell in love with this technology. The results were shown first in San Diego in and the extended collection was presented in several shows in Prague.
In 2015 his calendar Prague 2015 was awarded two prizes in the international competition "Best calendar of 2015"
Exhibitions:
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2009:
Gallery Scarabeus, Prague, 3/11-4/19
Photo Arts Building, Balboa Park, San Diego, 5/1-5/31
San Diego Art Institute, Balboa Park, San Diego, 5/15-5/31
Ministry of Agriculture, Prague, 12/3
2010:
Late and Magical Light at Centrum FotoSkoda, Praha, March 29 - April 10
Signatures - Places, People, Things, at Centrum FotoSkoda, Praha, May 17 - May 29
2011:
Profile of the American Photoclub at Centrum FotoSkoda, Praha, May 22 - June 18
2012:
Main Street 5 Gallery, El Cajon, CA, March 1 - March 30
Galerie Scarabeus, Praha, July 4 - August 26
Coffee shop Sladke Poteseni, Myslikova ulice 25, Praha 1, 2011-2012
2013:
Metalography at Photo Arts Building, Balboa Park, San Diego, 5/1-5/31
Hotel Petra Garni, Slapy, Czech Republic, 2012-2013
2014:
Nude Photo Exhibition at ARTP/Nikon Gallery, Prague, March 20 - April 27
4 x What or Find your own Connection (Metalography) in Galerie Carpe Diem, Praha, Czech Republic, April 6 - May 5
2015:
Exhibition of the best calendars of 2015 in the fair Reklama Polygraf, Praha, May 12 - 14
2016:
Eclectic selection on metal in All metal, at Centrum FotoSkoda, Praha, July 18 - 30
2017:
Alternative Interpretations show at Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry , Praha, July 27 - August 30
2018-2020:
Semipermanent show "Prague in B&W" at the restaurant "Al Castello" and "Metallographic pictures" at gelateria "I love Ice cream"
2023:
Polly Story-Lebl and Michal Lebl Cuba - Country and People, at Centrum FotoSkoda, Praha, May 8 - 27
