SIX

One of Prague’s more intriguing (and under-recognized) photographers, the pseudonymous artist Six has also lived a most fascinating life. Born Simon Barker, Six spent his teenage years developing the visual language of punk, rooming in London with Sid Vicious and working closely with Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood in their infamous Sex clothing store. His working relationship with Westwood continued throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s. He left the fashion world in the mid-90s in order to focus on his own photographic work, and re-settled in Prague. It was here that he became a regular in some of the city’s shadier establishments, documenting the teenage underworld of male prostitution and drug addiction. The work that emerged from this was the portrait series PERVATEEN (pictured here), which was shown in London at the Horse Hospital Gallery and here in Prague at the first Prague Biennale.

Six is a street artist in the true sense of the word – he can often be found wandering the streets of Prague with camera in hand, mapping the city’s subterranean geography through his lens. The Cast, a series of portraits of youths with broken limbs, ironically transformed the cast into a medical accessory of sorts, and has been the subject of solo exhibitions in London and Belgrade. Six’s latest project, THC Superstar, isn’t so much about marijuana the drug but the subculture that has emerged around it and the sense of camaraderie that emerges wherever the green smoke fills the air.

You can check out Six’s work online at www.six.cz.