The multi-genre Czech Photo Centre has organizing the prestigious Czech Press Photo journalism contest for over twenty years, which brings together the best Czech and Slovak photographers who bring visual testimony of events across the globe. We have also set up a “sister contest” – the new Czech Nature Photo contest, through which we want to showcase nature and wildlife from around the globe as seen by our own photographers.
What led to the founding of the contest?
“As a member of the implementation team for the Czech Press Photo panel, I often held photographs of wildlife in my hand, a field of photography I have been interested in for many years. I know how hard it is to get a good wildlife photo, and how much preparation and knowledge is required beforehand. I was often disappointed with the selection of winning photographs. It was often photographs capturing problems, the destruction of the environment, contrasts between wildlife and encroaching civilisation, which won. This is how it should be in a journalism contest, however. And so I came up with the idea of holding a contest just for wildlife and nature photographers so that they could showcase the whole range of wonders of nature our planet has to offer us within a number of categories. And last year we implemented this vision,” says Veronika Souralová, Director of the Czech Press Photo contest and also head of the Czech Photo Centre of the Czech Nature Photo contest.
The contest is designed for both professionals and advanced amateur photographers.
The pilot year took place in 2017 and it demonstrated great results: an expert judging panel selected the best wildlife photographs from domestic authors from 3 140 submitted photographs. 467 wildlife and nature photographers took part in the Czech Nature Photo contest. Just the submitted photographs alone make it clear that the Czech Republic is a country where wildlife and nature photography holds a strong position. It is no accident that many domestic authors also take wildlife and nature shots for a large number of international agencies and publishers. Nominated and other photographs could be viewed over the course of the summer in Prague Zoo and within the Czech Photo Centre gallery, where visitors were also able to choose the picture they liked the most. The exhibition attracted large visitor numbers.
DatesTwo exhibition collections will be produced from the awarded and selected photographs. One of these will tour zoological gardens as part of the Zoo Tour – beginning with Prague Zoo. The second, focused on Czech nature and wildlife will tour Czech Agricultural Museum branches. This part of the exhibition will begin with an exhibition in the National Agricultural Museum’s new roof premises:
People will be able to view the winning photographs across the whole country.
The expert judging panel will comprise renowned photographers and naturalists: Panel Chair Michal Krause, Petr Bambousek, Václav Šilha, Veronika Souralová, Miroslav Bobek and Javier Aznar. For the first time, the panel will include international figures. We are using a leased judging panel system – similar to the one used by Czech Press Photo from Hungarian company Econtest. In this way, we are increasing the contest’s prestige.
The principal media partners are Radiožurnál and Prima ZOOM.
Prizes will be provided by Olympus, while Fujifilm and CEWE Color will also be co-operating.
Partners: Lesy ČR, Zoo Praha, National Agricultural Museum, Krkonoše National Park