De Forest Phonofilm

Concentric sound waves and the geometric circles of a film reel.
At the center, a pale-skinned woman presses one hand to her chest,
as if listening intently to the invisible world of sound.

In the mid-1920s,
the world of cinema was in the midst of a monumental revolution:
the transition from silent movies to synchronized "talkies."
Phonofilm, developed by the American inventor Lee de Forest,
was a groundbreaking technology that recorded sound directly onto motion picture film.

One man worked tirelessly to bring this cutting-edge invention to his homeland of Czechoslovakia:
the international tenor Otakar Mařák.
He entrusted his close friend Alphonse Mucha with designing a poster to announce a historic screening—
a vital commission meant to herald the 1927 presentation at Prague's Adria Cinema.

Accepting the request, Mucha began his preparations at Zbiroh Castle in western Bohemia, where he resided at the time.
To explore the composition, he took test photographs himself.
He had his beloved daughter, Jaroslava, pose as the female artist in front of the lens.
And for the enigmatic man peering from behind her,
Mucha himself donned a costume to pose in the shadows.