Karel Gott’s death shook the public. There were long queues to say farewell to this national artist. The atmosphere reached its climax at his funeral at St Vitus Cathedral, which was swarming with photographers. Amongst them was Michal Šula from the Mafra media group, whose photograph won the title of Photo of the Month.
Photo: Michal Šula / Mafra – Karel Gott’s funeral
“The actual funeral marked the end of the huge media interest in Karel Gott’s death. My colleagues and I waited for a few hours in front of the cathedral in several rows. Only the family’s official photographer was allowed into the ceremony itself. To get an idea, we were three photographers from our newsroom in front of the cathedral,” says Michal Šula.
Born in Vinohrady, Prague. He has been taking photographs since the age of eighteen. After leaving school, he studied photography at the Prague School of Photography. From 2001 he worked as a photojournalist for Večerník Praha, and since 2004 he has been employed by MF DNES’s Prague regional newsroom. He mainly focuses on photography for sports and journalism. He has photographed a number of major sporting events, such as the Football World Cup in Germany in 2006, and the 2008 European Football Championship in Austria and Switzerland. He won the top prize in the Czech Press Photo contest in 2007 and second prize in 2006 within the People in the News category. In 2016 he won the Photograph of the Year award, becoming the contest’s absolute winner.