Yuri Dojc

Early life and education

Dojc grew up in Humenné in Eastern Slovakia, where his father was headmaster of a secondary school and his mother a teacher. The family later relocated to Bratislava. In 1968 he was on a summer student exchange program in London when the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia occurred. Following the advice of his father, Dojc decided that he would not return and a year later emigrated to Toronto, Canada.

Dojc studied mechanical engineering followed by psychology at Comenius University in Bratislava before the Soviet invasion interrupted his schooling. Upon arriving in Canada, he enrolled in the photography program at Ryerson University in Toronto. While at school, he became photo editor of the student weekly Eyeopener working alongside future newspaper journalist Christie Blatchford, CBC reporter Paul Workman, City reporter Jojo Chintoh and comedian Paul Chato.

Career

Among Dojc's early influences are Edward Weston, Irving Penn, Man Ray and Guy Bourdin, as well as painters René Magritte, Egon Schiele, and Amedeo Modigliani. His early shots were of doors, windows, chairs and flowers before gravitating toward human subjects. In the 1980s during the height of the poster business, Dojc's images appeared in the movie D.C. Cab. "Legs", "Bicycle", and "Chair" were three of his biggest sellers. His commercial clients have included FedEx, Apple, GM, Porsche, Canon, Club Med, Brooks and Panasonic.

Exhibits

Books