Czechoslovakian photographs of 1968

Besides Břetislav Hybler’s image which captures the battle accompanying 21 August 1968 on Prague’s Vinohradská street, the panel also appreciated Stanislav Šťastný’s set of photographs, “At the Radio Broadcasting Centre”, and the photography of Bohumil Dobrovolský. Jovan Dezort and Libuše Kyndrová received honorary mentions from the panel. The themes conveyed by the winning images particularly include the events taking place on 21 August around the building of the then-Czechoslovak Radio centre, and also on Wenceslas Square.

The photographs were chosen by an expert panel headed by Czech photographer Herbert Slavík. The panels other members included, e.g., historian at the Czech Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Contemporary History Oldřich Tůma, playwright, scriptwriter and actor Zdeněk Svěrák, Czech Radio Director General René Zavoral, Director of the Czech Press Photo contest and Czech Photo Centre gallery Veronika Souralová.

“The panel appreciated the event captured, the composition of the shot and the readiness by which the photograph was taken in an extremely tense situation. The winning photograph captures burning wreckage on Vinohradská street, a tank of the aggressors and one of the victims on an improvised stretcher, assessing it to best capture the tragedy of the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968,” explains Herbert Slavík.

“We are really pleased that so many people took part in the contest. And we are even more pleased that a large number of unique photographs are amongst the contest photos which have until now been in private albums, and we can now show these to the general public,” says Chief Editor of Czech Radio’s Radiožurnál station, Ondřej Suchan.

Citizens of the Czech Republic and Slovakia were able to send in their own archived pictures of 1968 from 3 April this year until 21 June. The entrant of the winning photograph will receive a reward of 30 thousand crowns. The second-placed entrant can look forward to 20 thousand crowns, while the third-placed entrant will receive 10 thousand crowns.

A selection of almost a hundred photographs in the Czechoslovakia – Photographs of ’68 can now be viewed in the Czech Photo Centre gallery. The exhibition includes all the winning and specially mentioned photographs, along with other selected photographs.

“The contest’s subtitle was about everyday life in Czechoslovakia in 1968. I am glad that we also received photographs which didn’t just convey the most dramatic moments on the streets and squares of Prague and other cities. People lived normal lives too, and there were also moments of happiness. We can see all of that in the exhibition in the Czech Photo Centre,” explains judge Veronika Souralová, who is also Director of the Czech Photo Centre gallery.

The contest is part of the Czech Radio ’68 project, which endeavours to commemorate the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops, which occurred here 50 years ago. It was Czechoslovak Radio which played a key role in providing information on the situation during the night of 20 to 21 August. The Czech Photo non-profit organisation, which is a partner of the project, was involved in the judging panel through Veronika Souralová, and also provided the Czech Photo Centre gallery for the exhibition of selected contest photos.

The Czech Photo Centre will also be holding an exhibition of Oldřich Škácha’s photographs, The 1968 Occupation, within the Czech Photo Centre at the same time. This will also be complemented by a stylised darkroom with the original equipment and photographs of Škácha’s studio taken by photographer Petr Šálek. At the same time, Evald Schorm’s documentary film Zmatek (Confusion), provided by the National Film Archive, will also be shown.

Both exhibitions will be open to the public until 16 September every day during the working week except Monday always from 11.00 am until 6.00 pm, and on weekends from 10.00 am until 6.00 pm. Standard entry costs 80 crowns, and concessions come in at 40 crowns. The gallery is 100 metres from Nové Butovice metro station at the address Seydlerova 2835/4, Prague 5.

Further information on the ’68 project and both exhibitions can be found at www.1968.rozhlas.cz and www.czechphotocentre.cz. Contact details and further information: Czech Photo Centre: Public relations – Anna Vacková, +420 777 09 36 90, vackova@czechpressphoto.cz, www.czechphoto.org

The exhibition is being held under the auspices of and with financial support from the Czech Ministry of Culture as part of the Czech and Slovak Century project in collaboration with the Václav Havel Library.

Main partners: Trigema, ProCeram, Olympus

Press release for download in .docx
Press release along with photographs for download in  .zip

Photo: Břetislav Hybler

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