1961 born in Náchod, northeast Bohemia, on 1 February 1961
1977 – 81studied graphic arts at another specialized secondary school, Prague
1982 – 86 studied art photography at the Film and Television School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU), Prague
1986 -2004 worked as a freelance photographer. In 1994, published first monograph Dynastie. In 1998, together with Václav Jirásek and Robert V. Novák, published Memento Mori, a volume to accompany an exhibition of the same name, which was held in the Galerie Rudolfinum that year.
2004 Galerie Rudolfinum Praha organized „Heroes“ a preliminary retrospective of his photographs. At the same time, he published his second monography, Heroes, which recieved a number of awards.
2005 – 2007 ran the photography studio at the Academy of arts, architecture and dessign, Prague
2008 – 20019 again freelance, lives in Oleško near Prague, making theatre posters with the graphic designer Robert V. Novák, devoted himself almost axclusively to art photography.
2009 published at the publishing house Torst his third monograph, Ivan Pinkava
2010 taking part in the exhibition Decadence Now, Vision of Excess organized by Galerie Rudolfinum Praha, together with artists Cindy Sherman, Jürgen Klauke, Damien Hirst, Nobuyoshi Araki, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jan van Oost and others.
Tváře doby. Političtí vězni 50. let, text by Kristýna Vlachová & Zuzana Meisnerová-Widmer & Jiří Majer, Fundation od Gallery Langhans, Prague, 2003
Portraiturés „Be kind to me, Paul Ardenne & Élisabeth Nora, Editions du Regard, Paris 2003
Česká a slovenská fotografie 80. a 90 let 20. století, Helena Rišlinková & Lucia Lendelová & Tomáš Pospěch, Olomouc Museum of Art, Olomouc, 2002
Das Lexikon der Fotografen 1900 bis Heute, Koetzle, Hans-Michael, Mnichov, Knaur, 2002
Na prahu příběhu, Ivan Pinkava TNF, Věra Jirousová, Fotograf v zahradě, Ateliér Josefa Sudka, Praha, 2002
Theatre of Lost Souls, Ivan Pinkava, text by Kristina Olson & Paul Krainak,& Josef Moucha, Morgantown, West Virginia, Mesaros Galleries, West Virginia University 2001
Black and White Photography, Luciana, James, Gloucester, Rockport Publishers, Inc., 2000
The Nude in Czech Photography, Vladimír Birgus , Jan Mlčoch, Kant, Prague 2000
Česká fotografie 90. let, Vladimír Birgus, Prague, Kant 1999
Certainty and Searching in Czech Photography of the 1990s, Vladimír Birgus & Miroslav Vojtěchovský, Kant, Prague, 1998
Jistoty a hledání v české fotografii 90. let, Vladimír Birgus, & Miroslav Vojtěchovský, Kant, Prague 1997
The sea inside the skin / Moře pod kůží, Min Tanaka: photo J. Krejčí & I. Pinkava, TORST, Prague, 1992
Second Internationale Foto-Trienale Esslingen, Manfred Schmalriede & Silke Schmalriede, Stuttgart, Cantz, 1992
