2024-02-16 07:28:39
The overall winner of the Czech Press Photo 2023 photojournalism competition was Roman Vondrouš from ČTK. His photo shows the riots in court. The trial concerned people who persecuted the head of the Medical Chamber, Milan Kubek, during the coronavirus pandemic. Photographer Lukáš Bíba, whose pictures are familiar to readers from the Aktuálně.cz news, also won the competition. He won the Reportage category.
The selection of the photo of the year for the jury was commented by its chairman Petr Mlch (ČTK): “This photo does not only tell about us, although the Czech and Slovak flags are depicted on it. It is an urgent message about the current times, when aggressiveness and a radical approach to solutions are constantly escalating complex issues. Covertly illuminates the rise of populism, which is gaining more and more attention. The public is often clear about how things should be done, and this trend is not limited to us, but includes the whole of Europe. These phenomena are becoming more and more apparent and thus influencing our society on a global scale.”
The winning photographer Roman Vondrouš (ČTK) stated that he does not like similar events where conflicts occur. “What happens is that the situation escalates and becomes violent, as was the case in this case. At first it did not seem that the supporters of the defendants would join the fight, but that changed within a few minutes and there was a clash between them and the police, the judicial guard and then the hard-wearing ones as well,” he describes the situation captured in his picture.
Picture of Roman Vondrouš from the Riots at the Court series | Photo: Czech Press Photo 2023
“Photojournalists have no choice but to be as close as possible, with the potential risk of getting hit,” explained Vondrouš. “But that’s the only way he takes expressive pictures, because at that moment the situation is extremely unclear and no one knows how it will develop. There is no time for careful compositions, and partly it is also a matter of luck, whether you are standing in the right place at the right moment and succeed to capture the most important moments that tell about the incident itself,” he adds.
236 authors from the Czech Republic and Slovakia applied for the 29th edition of the Czech Press Photo competition, sending more than four thousand works. The winners and partner awards of the 29th edition of Czech Press Photo were announced at a ceremony in the National Museum on Tuesday, January 31.
The Prague grant, which is the second main prize of the competition, was won by Vít Šimánek from ČTK, who will spend a year documenting areas of the metropolis that are undergoing or will soon undergo a major transformation.
The exhibition at the National Museum will last until the end of July
The exhibition of the winning and other selected photos of the 29th Czech Press Photo competition will take place in co-organization with the National Museum in the premises of the New Building on Wenceslas Square in Prague. Award-winning images and other selected photographs that characterize the past year are presented at the exhibition. Part of the exhibition collection is also the collection of Kevin V. Ton, who documented the massive construction in Prague. At the same time, one of the members of the jury, Belgian photographer Nick Hannes, will present himself at the exhibition with the series Garden of Pleasure.
In total, there are more than 470 printed photographs and more than 240 images in screens and projections from 120 authors. An accompanying program will be part of the exhibition. The exhibition will be open to the public from February 1 to July 31, 2024, every day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“The Czech Press Photo competition is slowly approaching its 30th anniversary since its foundation. We are glad that such a large number of high-quality images entered the competition this year, and we know from the attendance of previous exhibitions that people appreciate journalistic photography. In today’s age of artificial intelligence, when you can generate anything, and everyone has to be careful about what to believe and what not to believe, an authentic photograph from professional photographers is a valuable document that truly depicts our turbulent times,” says Veronika Souralová, director of Czech Photo.