Panorama Cottage industry: photographing the dreamy, maniacal history of the Czech 'chata'
The Czech obsession with getting away for the weekend to the family cottage in the countryside or cabin in the mountains began to take root in the 1920s and reached a fever pitch in the final decades of communist rule. Escaping to one's own 'chata' -- a simple cottage, typically located next to a forest or river and built from scratch by the family without professional help -- was, for many, a vital reprieve not just from cramped apartment life, but from collective society. Today, the Czechs boast the highest per capita number of weekend houses in Europe: Sculptor, painter and award-winning photographer Veronika Zapletalova has spent three years travelling the country documenting chatas -- what she calls the "sculpture of people's dreams."
Veronika Zapletalova
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