8.06.2020
As of today, the Old Town Hall in Prague displays the winning photographs of this year’s World Press Photo contest. The Czech capital is the first city to host the exhibition after its recent premiere in Amsterdam. This year, the international competition is accompanied by an exhibition called Coronavirus – Life in Emergency, with photos documenting life at the time of coronavirus in Czechia taken by Czech photo reporters including Ondřej Deml and Roman Vondrouš of the Czech News Agency (ČTK).
The World Press Photo results were announced on April 16, but owing to the coronavirus crisis, the winners learned about their success via the Internet and the traditional award ceremony in Amsterdam did not take place this year. The Photo of the Year prize was awarded to Japanese Yasuyoshi Chiba, French news agency AFP’s photographer for East Africa and Indian Ocean, for his photo taken at a demonstration in Sudan. His winning image Straight Voice captures a poetic moment amidst bloody protests in Sudan. It shows a young man, illuminated by mobile phones, reciting poetry to other demonstrators.
The second prize in the category of Contemporary Issues went to US photographer Steve Winter, who focused on the subject of tigers living in captivity. The jury also awarded two authors of sets of photographs of bushfires in Australia, Sean Davey of AFP and Matthey Abbot, who documented the situation for Panos Pictures and The New York Times.
The exhibition also displays photos capturing significant politicial events. Nicolas Asfouri was nominated for the Story of the Year award for his series of photos of demonstrations in Hong Kong and eventually won the first prize in the General News category. Romain Laurendeau follows the situation in Algeria, where high unemployment and frustrations led to demonstrations. The exhibition also displays topics such as the migration of South Americans to the USA, demonstrations in Chile and long-lasting conflicts in Syria and the Middle East.
The accompanying exhibition documenting the life during the coronavirus epidemic in Czechia shows photographs taken by 13 Czech photographers. ČTK photographer Roman Vondrouš displays the continuation of his Fragments of the Metropolis cycle, which was awarded the Prague Grant in 2010. Ondřej Deml focuses on capturing silhouettes of people wearing face masks.
The exhibitions will be open until June 28.