(1940) A Czech photographer and teacher born in Slovakia, whose work ranks among the most important examples of documentary and artistic photography from the second half of the 20th century. After studying cartography and geodesy, Gabčan settled in Ostrava during the 1960s, working in the coal mines while also devoting himself intensively to photography. From 1972 to 1976 he studied photography at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where his teachers included such leading figures in Czech photograph as Ján Šmok and Anna Fárová. His studies gave him a solid theoretical and historical grounding in photography. In his work he focused mainly on portraiture, everyday scenes and the industrial landscapes of the Ostrava region, but he also explored nude photography and experimented with historical photographic techniques such as sepia printing, gum printing and blue printing. After 1989 he made a significant contribution as a teacher. He helped establish photography studies at Ostrava’s secondary art school, and he also taught at the University