Tereza Zelenková’s black and white photographs explore the threshold between the reality and the myth. Her practice draws on literature, philosophy, and history, exploring how images can both record and reimagine the past. Working through a combination of staged and documentary approaches, Zelenková is interested in photography’s relationship to the written word, and how personal identity is shaped by the cultural heritage and collective memory of the places we inhabit.


Tereza Zelenkova has received several awards and her work has been exhibited on four different continents. Her photographs are held in the collections of Victoria & Albert Museum, Foam Photography Museum, Musée de l’Élysé, Saatchi Gallery and Fotomuseum Winterthur.

Her work was commissioned by The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Financial Times and Hothsoe magazine among others.

CV

Education

2010 - 2012 MA Photography, Royal College of Art, London, UK

2007 - 2010 First Class Honors, BA Photographic Arts, University of Westminster, London, UK


Collections

V&A Museum, London, UK.
Foam Photography Museum, Amsterdam, NL.
Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, CH.
Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne, CH
University of San Diego, USA
Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Moravská galerie, Brno, CZ


Commisioned work

The New Yorker
The Atlantic
Der Greif
The Financial Times
Hotshoe


Awards

2016 ING Unseen Talent Awards, NL.
2015 Jerwood Photoworks Award, UK.
2015 reGeneration3, Musée de l’Élysée, CH.    
2012 1000 Words Magazine Award, UK.
2012 Saatchi New Sensations, UK.
2012 Metro Imaging Award, UK.
2012 Plat(t)form, Fotomuseum Winterthur, CH.
2011 Fresh Faced & Wild Eyed, The Photographer’s Gallery, UK.
2011 Flash Forward, Magenta Foundation, UK Honorable Mention.


Solo Exhibitions

2026 Haus, Fiducia, Ostrava, CZ
2023 Memory and desire, stirring (with Ozlem Atlin), Fotograf Gallery, Prague, CZ
2022 The Maladies of The Infinite, Cultural Center of Belgrade, Belgrade, RS
2022 The Maladies of The Infinite, Berlinskej Model, Prague, CZ
2021 The Double Room, The Campbell House Museum with Contact Photo Festival, Toronto, CA.
2020 Dead Language, Ateliér Josefa Sudka, Praha, CZ.       
2018 The Essential Solitude, The Ravestijn Gallery, Amsterdam, NL.
2018 A Snake that disappeared through a hole in the wall, Foam Museum, Amsterdam, NL.   
2017 A Snake that disappeared through a hole in the wall, Prague, CZ.   
2016 Two and two is five, Rough Print Gallery, London, UK.
2014 Two and two is five, Galerie Jeleni, Prague, CZ.
2013 The Absence of Myth, Legion TV, London, UK.


Selected Group Exhibitions

2026 Athens Photography Festival, Bernaki Museum, Athens, GR.
2026 The Sun Never Saw a Shadow, Ka Space, Ankara, TR
2025 Joie et refuge, Czech Centre Paris, Paris, FR.
2025 Spectral Presences: Spirit Photography, 1865 to the Present, Humanities Center Gallery, University of San Diego, USA.
2025 Good Morning, I’m Off To Bed!, Ka Space, Ankara, TR.
2025 Zero Stars (with Peter Watkins and Agata Madejska), NoD galerie, Prague, CZ.
2024 Traces of Labour, Industra Gallery, Brno, CZ.
2023 Monochrome, The Ravestijn Gallery, Amsterdam, NL.
2022 One of a Kind, The Ravestijn Gallery, Amsterdam, NL.
2022 The Lore, Have a Butcher, London, UK
2021 - 2023 Known and Strange, V&A Museum, London, UK.
2021 SPBH, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, FR
2021 a Handful of Dust, National Centre for Photography and Images, Taipei, TW.
2020 Le Cabaret du Néant, Frac île-de-france, Le Château, Paris, FR.
2019 Unseen Photography Festival, Amsterdam, NL.   
2019 a Handful of Dust, Polygon Gallery, Vancouver, CA.
2019 Gothic Fictions, Silver Eye Photography Center, Pittsburgh, USA.
2019 Tender, Czech Center New York, New York, USA.   
2018 a Handful of Dust, California Museum of Photography, Riverside, USA.
2018 Jaipur Photography Festival, Jaipur, IN.
2017 a Handful of Dust, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK.
2017 At Home She’s a Tourist, Copeland Gallery, London, UK.
2016 Jerwood / Photoworks Award, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK.
2016 ING Unseen Talent Awards, Unseen Photography Festival, Amsterdam, NL.
2016 Jerwood / Photoworks Award, Belfast Exposed, Belfast, UK.
2016 Jerwood / Photoworks Award, Impression Gallery, Bradford, UK.
2015 Jerwood / Photoworks Award, Jerwood Art Space, London, UK.
2015 a Handfull of Dust, Le Bal, Paris, F.
2015 reGeneration 3, Museo Amparo, Mexico.
2015 reGeneration3, Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne, CH.
2014 Re-becoming, Flowers Gallery East, London, UK.
2014 Continental Shift, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK.
2013 Unnatural Selection, Unseen Photography Fair, Amsterdam, NL.
2013 New Order, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK.
2013 Thresholds, Belfast Exposed, Belfast, UK.
2012 Lianzhou Foto Festival, Lianzhou, China.

2012 RCA Show 2012, Royal College of Art, London, UK.

2012 Black Thorns in The White Cube, Western Exhibitions, Chicago, USA.
2012 Hijacked III, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, AU.
2011 The Wonders of The Visible World, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK.

2011 Altitude +1000 Festival de Photographie de Montagne, Rossiniere, CH.
2011 The Collector’s Guide to New Art Photography Vol. 2, Chelsea Museum of Art, New York, USA.

2010 This Must be The Place, Jerwood Art Space, London, UK.
2010 Women in Art Photography U.K., Taaschen, London, UK.


Selected Publications

Monographs

The Essential Solitude, VOID, 2021.
The Essential Solitude, (self-published), 2018.
The Absence of Myth (self-published), 2013.
Index of Time (self-published book - with P. Watkins and O. Shamlou), 2012.
Supreme Vice (Morel Books), 2011.


Group Publications

a Handful of Dust, MACK Books, 2015.
Seeing for Others, Black Dog Publishing, 2012.
Hijacked III, Big City Press, 2012.
The Collector’s Guide to Emerging Art Photography, HAFNY, 2011.




Educational work

2019 – present VOŠG a SPŠG (Hellichovka), Prague, Lecturer in History of Photography
2022 MA Photography Studies College, Melbourne, external mentor
2021 – 2022 Royal Academy for Fine arts Antwerpen, external reviewer of MA photography projects
2021 Royal College of Art, London, visiting lecture
2021 UMPRUM, Prague, visiting lecture
2020 University Centre Farnborough, visiting lecture
2019 Krakow Photobook Festival, Paperlust, workshop leader
2019 Cambridge University, Photographic Society, visiting lecture
2018 University of Westminster, BA Photography, visiting lecturer, tutorials
2018 Foam Photography museum, artist presentation, workshop leader
2017 University of Westminster, BA Photography, visiting lecture, tutorials
2017 University of Plymouth, BA and MA Photography, visiting lecture, tutorials
2017 Swansea College of Art, BA and MA Photography, visiting lecture
2017 University of Brighton, MA Photography, visiting lecture, tutorials
2017 Belfast School of Art, BA and MA Photography, visiting lecture, group crits
2016 London College of Communication, BA and MA Photography, visiting lecture, tutorials
2016 University of Westminster, BA Photography, visiting lecture, tutorials
2015 University of Westminster, BA Photography, visiting lecture, tutorials
2013 - 2014 University of Portsmouth, BA Photography, Lecturer in Photography

Contact:

tereza.photography@gmail.com