31.01.2024
The Czech News Agency's (CTK) photojournalist Roman Vondrous has won the main award of the Czech Press Photo 2023 contest with his picture from a trial of defendants pursuing Medical Chamber head Milan Kubek during the COVID pandemic, the organisers announced at a ceremony at the National Museum today.
Vondrous has won three prizes, one second and two third places in other categories.
Another CTK photographer, Vit Simanek, was also awarded in the contest, receiving the Prague Grant, was also awarded to for his project photographing changing places in Prague.
Photographers from other media and news agencies were also successful.
A total of 236 authors from the Czech Republic and Slovakia with over 4,000 entries participated in the 29th edition of the Czech Press Photo competition.
The competition is accompanied by an exhibition of the awarded pictures to be held at the National Museum from February 1 to July 31, 2024.
President Petr Pavel also attended today's award-giving ceremony at the National Museum, and he presented the prizes in the Sports category.
The photographs were assessed by an international jury, which selected Vondrous's photograph as the best.
"This photo is not only about us, although it shows the Czech and Slovak flags. It is an urgent message about the current times, when aggression and radical approach to solving complex issues are constantly escalating. It covertly illuminates the rise of populism," Petr Mlch, chairman of the jury and the CTK Photobank head, said, commenting on the winning photo capturing supporters of the defendant, Patrik Tusl, who were protesting against his trial at a Prague district court at the end of last July.
Vondrous says he does not like photographing such events.
"Sometimes it happens that the situation escalates and a tumult occurs as it did in this case. At first it didn't seem like this, but that changed within a few minutes and they clashed with police, court guards and then armoured officers. The photojournalists then had no choice but to really be as close as possible, even with a potential risk," he said. He added there was not much time for composition and it was also a matter of luck to be in the right place at the right time.
Vondrous also finished second in the Arts and Culture category with his Punk Funeral photo and got the third place in the Current Affairs and Sports categories.
The former category was won by Jan Jirkovsky with his photo of the band Alkehol, and the jury chose Martin Divisek of the EPA with his photo of the earthquake in Turkey as the best picture in the Current Affairs category.
The second main prize of the competition, the Prague Grant, went to Simanek from CTK. He will spend a year documenting the areas of Prague that are undergoing or will soon undergo major transformation. The grant winner was selected by Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda (Civic Democrats, ODS).
Simanek also received the third prize in the People to Talk About category with a photo of former MP Dominik Feri, charged with rape, in court.
Lukas Biba of Economie won the Reportage category with his series "The Journey of President Petr Pavel to Prague Castle". The first prize from the Daily Life category went to Mafra's photographer Petr Topic for his pictures of Kyiv at night. The winner of the category of People Who Are Talked About is Tomas Benedikovic from Denik N daily, photographing Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.
The Sports category was dominated by AP's Petr David Josek, taking the first place with his series from the Football World Cup in Qatar and the second place with his series from the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
The winner of the portrait category was Milan Jaros of Respekt weekly with his photo entitled "We, Too, Should Have Disappeared in Russia". Another CTK photographer Petr Uhlir also scored success in this category receiving the second prize for his portrait of sculptor Nikos Armutidis.
Michal Fanta from the Fire and Rescue Service of the Czech Republic succeeded in the Man and Environment category with his photographs of a fire in Greece.
In addition to chairman Mlch, the jury of the competition this year included Belgian photographer Nick Hannes from Panos Pictures, Czech documentary photographer Dana Kyndrova, the EPA agency's reportage photographer Filip Singer and Panos Pictures director Adrian Evans from the UK.