Picture perfect

A look back on the year's most significant events kicks off at Old Town Hall Nov. 19, with the annual Czech Press Photo exhibition featuring this year's best work by Czech and Slovak photographers.

A total of 299 photographers submitted 4,236 photos to the 2010 competition in eight different categories, including the prestigious "Photograph of the Year" award. The competition has taken place every year since 1995.

"Once again, the submissions really mirrored the events that moved the world and us here at home," said Daniela Mrázková, the event's chief organizer. "In 2010, the most captured events were certainly the earthquake in Haiti, floods in the Czech Republic, protests in Bangkok and the Czech victory at the World Hockey Championship."

This year's "Photograph of the Year" came from freelance photographer Martin Bandžák, who captured a young girl suffering form facial injuries in the wake of the Haiti earthquake.

"The jury was touched by this photo the most, because they found that the portrait had a symbolic quality to it, that it really conveyed this catastrophe," Mrázková said. "But as so often, there was a heated debated among the jury before they settled on this picture."

This year's jury featured New York Times Photo Editor Daphné Angles, Agence France-Presse Photo Editor Mladen Antonov, as well as freelance photographer Antonello Zappadu, whose shots of then Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek lounging naked poolside at Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Sardinian villa created a scandal both at home and abroad in 2009.

"We were interested in inviting him, because in the Czech media, he was made out to be a paparazzo," Mrázková said. "When we looked into his CV, we found that he is more of an investigative news photojournalist."

Zappadu's extended series, which was banned from being published in Italy and first appeared in the Spanish daily El País, spans from 2007 to 2009. The photographer observed the happenings at Berlusconi's estate in an effort to reveal the social life of the prime minister, who has been accused of using state funds to fly guests to his villa.

"The pictures of Berlusconi and Topolánek have brought me fame and money, but also a lot of difficulty," Zappadu told The Prague Post. "I am currently fighting for my personal freedom of press in the courts. Being a member of the jury in Prague has been a very gratifying experience."

Winners this year include František Ortmann, who took first prize in the "People in the News" category for his photograph of the captain of the Czech ice hockey team, Tomáš Rolínek, after the team won the World Cup, as well as Jan Šibík, who scored first place in the "Spot News" category for his depiction of the looting and violence that struck the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince after Jan. 12's earthquake.

"Czech Press Photo and its organizer, Daniela Mrázková, have made a huge contribution to improving the quality of Czech photojournalism," Šibík, who also won 1995's and 1999's "Photograph of the Year" award, told The Prague Post. "And although every year there is a lot of discussion about the picks, the exhibition does give the public a chance to see the year's best press photography."

The exhibition opens at Prague's Old Town Hall Nov. 19 and runs through Jan. 31, 2011.

Sarah Borufka can be reached at
sborufka@praguepost.com