Introducing Milan Jaros, the recipient of last year’s Grant of Prague
5th Nov 2010
MILAN JAROS (1979) was born in Prague. Between 1994 and 1998 he studied photography at the School of Graphic Arts in Prague, between 1998 and 2004 at the School of Photography at FAMU in Prague. He published his photographs in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, l’Hebdo, Courriere International, Chicago Tribune, Respekt, Reflex. Since 2008 he has worked as a photographer at Respekt magazine.
Awards:
UniCredit Bank Young Photo Award 2009
Czech Press Photo 2009: 1st prize Everyday Life category, 3rd prize Portrait category, Grant of Prague
UNICEF Photo Award 2009: 2nd prize
Czech Press Photo 2010: 3rd prize Spot News category, Honorable Mention Everyday Life category
The prestigious Grant of Prague, a creative scholarship to photograph the changes in Prague is awarded annually by the Mayor of Prague as part of Czech Press Photo. He received the Grant in 2009 on the basis of work-in-progress How do people with handicap live in Prague. That’s also the name of his Grant exhibition.
www.milanjaros.com, info@milanjaros.com
GRANT OF PRAGUE CZECH PRESS PHOTO 09
Milan Jaros – How Handicapped People Live
“The most interesting aspect of photography for me is the opportunity to get to know new things. At the start of my Handicapped project was my story about autistic children for Respect magazine. Thanks to that I won the Grant of Prague. I had never photographed handicapped people before nor did it ever occur to me to do so. I took my first pictures in a class of autistic children called Peas in Stibrova School and I was surprised by the degree of kindness, understanding and the inspirational strength of inner energy the teachers shared. I got interested in the world of autistic people who introduced a completely new experience to my life, which was reinforced by the birth of my own son.
I decided to continue with the Grant project and follow up with visits to schools and institutions that help handicapped people with education, various forms of therapy, assistance and integration to normal life. Jedlicka Institute. Organisation Assistance. Helppes, Mrs Drvotova and her dogs Biba and Akina. Roosevelt School. Alzirska School. Practical School Lyceum. Jaroslav Jezek School. I photographed in all those places and met interesting and inspirational people, who were more or less similar to those I met at the beginning of my work in Stibrovka. I was surprised by the amazing strength and the fighting spirit people with various types of handicap have. At the same time I discovered within myself many stereotypes and prejudices stemming from the ignorance of this world. I also found the link, which had led me to photographing this theme. The link is love, openness, empathy, help and compassion for a fellowman. There aren’t many areas of human activity, which require the integration of all these characteristics, all together if possible, than the work with the handicapped. Perhaps to some it may sound banal or clichéd. For me it was a strong experience and I hope I succeeded at least in part in conveying it with this set of photographs.”
Milan Jaros, Prague, November 2010
sample of the Grant here.
