Photography exhibitions in Prague

The place where the tourists always head – Prague Wenceslas Square where you can smell sausages, tourists meet among luxurious shops and prostitutes, diggers and construction barriers. This most famous Czech square has always been mirroring the age in which Czechs lived, adjusting itself according to the atmosphere.

Changes of Wenceslas square were being pictured for forty years by a Prace paper photographer Vilem Kropp, who walked through it every day and his black-and-white nostalgic photographs able us to see the Square as it lived in 40s and 80s, at the exhibition which is placed directly in the lower part of the square.

The pictures depict the square in the days of loneliness as well as filled with crowds during important history dates. The exhibition also looks to the future, with the bright project which should start in 2014. The exhibition ends this Friday 17th October 2008.

Photographs of Josef Koudelka are exhibited at the Old Town Square City Hall until 13th September. Most of the yet not published photographs are possible to see at the exhibition Invaze 68 (68 Invasion) or in a book of the same name.

Arrival of Soviet army is depicted in his photographs from its very beginning. The pictures Koudelka made during the day weren’t immediately developed, he only look after new material to photo at. As he wasn’t employed as a journalist, he didn’t have to leave the place to hand in the photographs, which contributed to fascinating coherence of the whole evidence. Also, it probably saved them.

Kouldelka’s photographs appeared first time one year later in many foreign magazines. Koudelka couldn’t have been signed under them, otherwise he would have threatened him and his family.

The Exhibition refers to the Famous exhibition Czech Press Photo, but the photography focus is clear: Czechs as a nation of dog-lovers.

Traditionally, it is put together by the respected dog photographer Antonin Maly, featuring photos of dogs in all kinds of situations. The exhibition opened at Prague’s Josef Sudek Chamber Gallery on Tuesday.

Antonin Maly is famous for his images of dogs, including his own, Misa and Cecilia, the first a French mastiff, the second an American bulldog. At times, his pictures capture both in action, flying through the air, maws wide, jowls flapping. Antonin Maly says: “Most of the dogs featured in the show are the most horrible-looking ones including mine! Misa and Cecilia are really quite silly sometimes. Cecilia’s really fat and when you see her sitting back on the couch with her belly, well it’s kind of pathetic. I guess that I choose dogs which visually have a bit more personality: flat-snout dogs with lots of skin or overhanging flaps, who look like they just got punched in the nose, are good for this kind of thing. The pictures are supposed to be funny, so the dogs have to have some kind expression.”

Not all people appreciate dog photography but most visitors should find something fun in Czech Pes Photo. Besides, work by Antonín Malý, the show also features work of famous 20th century photographers like Václav Chochola, or the more recent Jan Saudek. Czech Pes Photo continues at the Josef Sudek Chamber gallery through July and August.

source: www.radio.cz

Prague – an architectonic jewel, for some represented by the Gothic Prague Castle, for many others, however, it means the Dancing house, hotel Metropol on Narodni Trida or the administrative building Muzo at Strasnice. Those three got into the top 50 most significant Prague buildings, objects or projects, that originated in the past twenty years. Those fifty were carefully selected by curators of Jaroslav Fragner Gallery, who have opened the exhibition New Face of Prague in the Czech Centre Prague in Rytirska ulice yesterday.

What is the new face of Prague, so? “There is no distinctively Prague style, and quite probably there will be no in the future. The exhibition shows the variety, appearing in Prague architecture. The problem is, from those great numbers of objects being build in Prague, only a few are worthwhile.” The exhibition curator Dan Merta stated for Lidove Noviny. The present face of Prague will be presented here in Czech Centre Prague in Rytirska, next year in Slovakia, after in Berlin.

On Tuesday, at Namesti Republiky Square, the Prague Mayor Pavel Bem and the representative of Prague 1 Petr Hejma opened the world-wide known open-air animal photography exhibition ALIVE.

The Mayor Bem stated for Denik: “The animals on the exhibition are photographic experience an impression, which offer open look into the nature, which we need to protect and respect. People are going to love stopping here, and it will inspire their relation to nature”

Some of you may remember the other exhibition Bertrand organized two years ago at Kampa park. The exhibition was called Earth: beautiful, unknown and at the time it was seen by more than 300 000 visitors. The exhibion will be there until 5th October 08. To have a look at them is for free.

Retrospective of photographer Jiri Vsetecka introduces Prague in its various forms. Dreamy corners of Prague, romantic city shades, people and their life, but also positive moments of our metropolis are the main theme of the large-scale photographs of Jiri Vsetecka. The Exhibition called Prazsky Chodec – Prague Walker is Placed in Terezian Wing of the Old Royal Palace of the Prague Castle

Jiri Vsetecka is one of the most famous Prague photographers, now having his 70th birthday celebrates, balances his walks with an objective. His walks started in 1958. The beauty of his pictures lies in the unusual atmosphere, which gives to the photographed places some kind of sleepy, dreamy atmosphere.

The photographer himself admits, he likes Prague the most, when the day turns in the night, when the city is in the special light.. Bridges, houses and persons are surrounded by a dreamy mist, which emphasizes its charm and also softens stone contours.

The exhibition lasts until 31st August 2008. If you go to Prague for just a weekend, this is exactly the kind of exhibition you shouldn’t miss.

The exhibition presents a comprehensive overview of the amazingly beautiful but also disquieting oeuvre of the American photographer Gregory Crewdson (born 1962 in New York). Crewdson has dealt with the neuroses, fears, and secret desires of a society looking into the abyss of its own psyche since the mid-1980s.

His images are set in suburban America and refer directly to the myths of Hollywood movies. The intricate and perfectly beautiful staged photographs were shot with the help of a large crew
after weeks of extensive preparations on film-like studio sets or on location. The exhibition is organised in cooperation with Kunstverein Hannover and realized with PPF.

Gallery Rudolphinum, Alsovo nabrezi 12 , Prauge 19/3 – 25/5 2008

The exhibition and book trilogy Prague Castle in Photography is concluded by a part showing changes of the siege in years 1939-1989.

Historic and topographic signs have the upper hand over the whole conception of this exhibition. The photos are not sequenced according to beauty, but the groups are formed according to the inner logic of the castle area. The only exception is the ‘personalities’ group, which brings in portraits of politicians and architects of the famous Gothic castle.

As the past two episodes of the cycle could be called romantic or calm, this episode commemorates especially the dark times, for example it depicts Emil Hacha, the Czechoslovak president, surrounded by Nazi soldiers, getting his new BMW given by Adolph Hitler.

The book ends symbolically; by the classic picture of Vaclav Havel on 29th November 1989, after being elected a president. But this is not the case of all’s well that ends well; Prague castle is too much permeated by history for such a conclusion.

7th January (Three wise man day) 2008 ends this exhibition, but the book trilogy accompanying the event stays for those who bought it, and gains its documentary value. The exhibition takes place in Prague Castle, Terezianske Kridlo (Terezian Wing).

On 31st of October started an extensive exhibition of Jindrich Streit´s photographs at Stone Bell House, which is a part of City Gallery Prague. This photographic exhibition is a huge retrospective of Streit´s work, which shows pictures taken between years 1965 – 2005.

Jindrich Streit is worldly known documentary photographer, most famous for his pictures of Czech villages in the 1980´s. He captured the villages in the time of real socialism, without any romantic or idealizing pathos so characteristic for depicting Czech villages in previous times. But in the communist period, he was persecuted for his work; even his negatives were once confiscated during a house search.

The exhibition is opened until 3rd of February 2008. Entrance fee is 120 Czk full price, 60 Czk reduced. Read on

The winner of the Czech Press Photo contest is the one depicting child execution.

Dan Materna from MF Dnes Newspaper won this prestigious contest with all the jury voting for his shot. Its theme – the worst personal drama of human life – war within a family.

Amanda Hopkins from the jury declared: “It is a pivotal problem of contemporary civilization; crisis of values, where everybody lose: mather, father, child, society and offices. Emotively strong picture holds up a mirror and gives questions. We have agreed with single voice the picture shows a problem that is all-European” Moreover, it could help with solving of those case cases in general.

The winner of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) prize is Jan Sibik, for the picture of Refugee camp in Uganda. This photography is his only awarded picture of this year, the previous years he took away usually various prizes for his pictures of war conflicts or places stricken with a humanitarian catastrophe.

To see the winning pictures, click here.

The legendary world pyromaniac Roman Signer is going to show his abilities as a photographer, in Gallery Langhans, Prague. The shots displayed are those that he carefully selected during his lifetime, and they concern about ready-made situations, or, absurd constellations from around the world, reflecting the fact good art springs by itself, the only necessary thing is to see it (and/or make a shot)

Part of the exhibition is formed by Signer’s punk or absurd poetry of solving problems by explosions. The performances (Aktionen) made him famous. He submerges himself in a kayak, for instance, then uses explosives to saw it into seven pieces, or sets it upright in an oil drum. He also has a black ring of smoke escape from an exploded aerosol can and catapults a stool out of a hotel window using an elastic band.

If we consider the fact he will soon be seventy, he is full of explosive energy that we can wonder at Gallery Langhans, Vodickova 37, Prague 1, from Tuesday to Sunday 12 – 6pm, until 11th November 2007.

It is for the 17th time that the prestigious World Press Photo exhibition comes here to Prague. To see are those made in 2006. The shots will be displayed in Karolinum.

The winner of the 2006 photography is the nowadays often displayed shot of young high-class Lebanons, driving in a convertible in Baghdad after bombing.

The Prize of Prague (Cena Prahy), goes to a sport picture. It was given away by the Mayor of Prague, Pavel Bém, who is a great sportsman himself. It is the shot of the well-known Zidane’s header performed at the World’s cup in Germany. The picture cronique of humankind events is possible to see from Monday to Friday since 9 to 19. The entrance fee is 3 €; 90 czk.

Prague will be one of the cities in the world to host the annual exhibition of the World Press Photo again. The best photographs made by professional press photographers will be displayed in Prague’s Karolinum from 14th September to 7th October 2007.

Visitors of this exhibition can see closely the winning photographs of the World Press Photo of the year 2006 made by Spencer Platt from the USA – young Lebanese driving down a street in a bombed neighbourhood in southern Beirut.

The exhibition in the Carolinum gallery will be open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 – 18:00. The full entrance fee is 90 CZK, the reduced one is 50 CZK. Clementinum is situated in Ovocny Trh 3 street.

The large exhibition of large-format photographs from various corners of the world has been shown for already 4 months in the halls of Prague Airport Ruzyne. The author of the photographs is famous Czech traveller and photographer Jiri Kolbaba. Due to big success the exhibition has been prolonged until 31st October 2007.

The photographs are placed almost on every step there. You can find them in departure and arrival halls, corridors and transit areas of terminals Sever 1 and Sever 2.

Kolbaba’s exhibition will be accompanied with an itinerant exhibition of photographs made by reporters and corespondents of Koktejl magazine. This exhibition will be shown in the departure hall of Terminal Sever 2 from 1st September until 13th October 2007.

Already the third (and so far the last) part of photography exhibition connected with Prague Castle is displayed from today in the Terezian Wing of Old Royal Palace at Prague Castle. This time the photographs concentrate on period between 1939 and 1989.

Documentary photographs are shown besides art photographs by several Czech authors, such as Josef Sudek, Karel Hajek, Karel Pricka or Alexandr Paul. Several photographs were not allowed to be shown in the communist regime, that’s why several photographs are presented to Czech audience for the first time.

The last part of the collection of photographs presents the time of World War II and the communist regime at Prague Castle. The exhibition will be open until 6th January 2008.

Leica Gallery will have to stop its very popular project Gallery in the Train that has been travelling to many towns in the Czech Republic. The reason is simple: money as the main sponsor didn’t give the promised contribution and the gallery is not able to finance such an expensive project itself.

Instead of going to Germany the train will come back to four towns in the Czech Republic (Prague included) so that visitors will have a last chance to see two exhibitions in the train – The Million Dollar Baby and Buena Vista Social Club.

The train will arrive to Prague on 20th September and will leave it again on 19th October 2007. You can find it at Prague’s main railway station. Then it will move to Brno where it will be finished at the fair Invex-Digitex.

Do you think you can recognize animals just by their eyes? Until 31st October you have a special chance to try it in the shopping centre Atrium in Charles Square in Prague.

Large-format photographs made by Michael Fokt show provoking eyes of animals. Some photographs are three-dimensional and put on conical objects, some are shown on computer screens. The exhibition is crowned with six large canvases creating a virtual ‘second floor’ of the exhibition.

The author of this exhibition, that has been very successful last year, Michael Fokt studied zoology at Charles University and now he devotes his time to photographing and writing books about various animals.

‘The Roof of Africa’ (Strecha Afriky) is a new exhibition held in the New Town Hall in Charles Square in Prague. It exhibits photographs made during the expedition called ‘Africa on-line’ to the highest mountain of the continent – Kilimanjaro.

The large photographs shows Kilimanjaro from its border with tropical rain forest to its peak covered by glaciers. The exhibition also shows places in Tanzania, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro and others.

The exhibition is open every day (except Mondays) from 10:00 to 18:00 until 30th September 2007. You can get there easily by metro (yellow line B, station Karlovo namesti).

Until 19th August 2008 you can visit a unique exhibition of 11 large-format photographs of various botanical gardens in several places in the world. It’s situated in the greenhouse Fata Morgana in Prague’s Botanical Garden in Troja.

The exhibition of Lena Jasmina Hybkova called ‘A Garden in the Garden’ is a part of the international project ‘Gardens behind the city walls’ that started in Zurich last year and travelled to many metropolises in the world.

The exhibition presents the heritage of botanical gardens in the world and supports the relationship between art and nature. Fata Morgana greenhouse can be visited every day except Mondays from 9:00 to 19:00.

Famous traveller and photographer Rudy Svaricek will share his experiences and adventures in a new photo exhibition called The Magic of Eastern Afrika.

The large-format photographs in this exhibition will take us to the interesting part of Africa – Ethiopia. The pictures will tell stories about its inhabitants and the jewels of architecture and will present the country as a country of contrasts.

The exhibition starts tomorrow in the exhibition hall of the Botanical Garden in Prague-Troja. You can travel in your mind to Africa every day between 9:00 and 19:00 until 31st August 2007.