News

Who is Stanislav Krupař – the winner of the Main Prize Czech Press Photo 2011?

The title PHOTOGRAPH OF THE YEAR Czech Press Photo 2011 was awarded to a photograph of drawn-out social disturbances in northern Bohemia. The sparkle that ignited the incident was a machete attack by Roma youths on white customers drinking in a bar. Protest marches and demonstrations by the locals followed and the exponents of the ultra-right tendencies took advantage of the situation. The police was sent in but apart from that, it seems that politicians don’t know what to do.
The international jury explained their decision to award this picture with the following words:

“The winning picture is a strong journalistic photograph drawing attention to a serious contemporary social issue, taking place not only in the Czech Republic.”


STANISLAV KRUPAŘ, (born 15th April 1972 in Pardubice). After graduating from a grammar school and the Faculty of Forestry at the MZLU in Brno, he worked as a borstal warden and a teacher in special schools; and for a number of years as a seasonal worker on farms in England.
He’s been a photographer since 2002, with his work published in national and international press (Die Zeit, GEO, National Geographic, Ogonek); he also cooperates with non-governmental organisations (Movement Duha, Greenpeace, Light for the World).
He has been working on two long-term projects –documenting the Far Right movement and the revival of shamanism in southern Siberia. Since 2009 he has been one of the regular photographers for Reflex magazine.

Awards:

2011  Photograph of the Year – main prize Czech Press Photo
        1st prize – Spot News, Czech Press Photo
        UNHCR Award Czech Press Photo
2010  1st prize – Nature and Environment, Czech Press Photo
        3rd prize Ringier Photo Award International
2008  3rd prize Portrait Czech Press Photo
2004  Honorable Mention – Everyday Life, Czech Press Photo
2003  3rd prize – General News, Czech Press Photo
2002  1st prize Fotosymposium, Bad Herrenalb (Germany)

Winner of CPP 2011 Stanislav Krupar from Reflex magazine is showing journalists his winning picture “Disturbances in Northern Bohemia”, Varnsdorf, 10th September 2011.

(photo: Oleg Homola)

STORY OF THE WINNING PHOTOGRAPH

 “On Saturday, the 10th September, on the way from the square, it became obvious that something bad was going to happen in Varnsdorf. Crowds of people - there must have been about eight hundred of them - flooded the streets and walked, unusually calmly, towards the Hostel Sport where the Roma lived. After weeks of tension in the Sluknov region and after several attacks by young Roma, local emotions were at breaking point. Among the people who joined the march were dozens of ultra-right supporters - neo-Nazi bullies. Many of the locals didn’t hesitate to walk side by side with them. Frustrated people in the region, where unemployment runs at sixteen percent, decided that those high up had to finally take them seriously.
By the bridge over the river, only a few hundred yards from the miserable looking Hostel Sport, which in the eyes of the demonstrators became a symbol of all the problems in the region, the police stopped the march. Stones, bottles and dustbins immediately started flying through the air. The crowd wanted to settle their bill with the gypsies.
At that moment I stuck to the police cordon and trying to avoid the stones flying through the air I waited. Around the pub and the game arcade across the street, in the no man’s land between the police and the Nazis, a group of regulars was hanging about.  Among them was a man with a scarf around his head, wearing a purple T-shirt; his trousers were covered with cement and he looked as if he had just popped out for a beer. That man, maybe just over fifty years old, got into a discussion with the police as to why were they protecting the gypsies. He shouted and threatened, stones were flying and the demonstrators were going crazy. The police used a water cannon. Or rather they just sort of threatened to use it – it was a hot summer day and it felt like a pleasant, refreshing shower. But it was also symbolic. However, the bricklayer wasn’t intimidated. He was walking, determined, towards the police heavyweights. A frustrated martyr. I placed myself conveniently so that I wouldn’t get soaked but could still take photographs. I met him again, a week later, on17th May, at the same spot, next to the game arcade, wearing the same clothes. Apparently his name is Kvetos and he is new to Varnsdorf, he’s only been living there for sixteen months...”

Stanislav Krupař