Miroslav Tichy @ ICP

The show of Miroslav Tichy photos (I hadn't heard of him either) at the International Center of Photography is great. It is surreal and very inspiring. Tichy was a painter turned photographer who lived a very rudimentary existence. Dressed in rags using homemade cameras he photographed almost exclusively women in the very small town in where he lives. There is something really magical about the photographs and nothing of the lecherousness  or objectification that one assumes on entering the show. 
One of the best parts of the show is seeing all the ingenious camera mods he made using anything from home cut plastic lenses to a piece of a pen clicking against the ridges of a bottle cap as a film winder. The show was liberating, seeing someone playing with the most basic elements of photography and creating a beautiful and irreverent body of work. Here are some examples of his photos.