Prague - The approaching end of the year could breath new life into the ongoing Czech Press Photo exhibition. As people start to look back at the year 2007, they may find the annual showcase of Czech photojournalism handy.
Many supposedly significant happenings of the year are captured in these photographs, which can help people provide answer to that typical end-of-the year question: Was it worth it?
If the same question was used towards the exhibiton itself, the answer might be not to its authors' liking, though, as the collection fails yet again to present a solid overview of the world of Czech photojournalism and instead betrays shortcomings of the exhibition's selection process.
Absence of visual power
Let´s take the winning photograph this year. Dan Materna's Distraint of a Child is rather flat and merely descriptive with almost no aesthetic value. The picture is so vague that not knowing what the action captured in the photograph refers to, the viewer perceives it as any street family fight.
The picture is missing all ingrediences that would make a special visual symbol of the event. It fails to create a vivid image that would remain with the viewer for a long time, something the World Press Photo, the more famous godfather of the show, is known for.
The major failure of the exhibition is precisely the absence of visual power that corresponds to the level of the submitted pictures as well as the Jury´s insatiable appetite for displaying, as if it followed a motto: Why not show it all, once we have it?
The installation gives the impression of a room with lots of wallpapers having almost no space among each other. The categories mingle together and the photographs happen to be interrelated in an almost dadaistic way (separating the Siamese twins, two car accident survivals and a slogan banner of policemen).
Another point that weakens the exhibition is the fact the presented photographs do not form series (except the Prisoners´ Etude by Karel Cudlín). Instead of telling a story in 8-12 cases, the photographs represent only a variation of few themes. That says a lot about editorial practice and obvious lack of time to explore an issue.
Kind, or harmless?
The invidual categories have undergone a certain stereotypization over the years. Reviewing the photographs of politicians in the category People in the News, it becomes rather clear the irony Czech politicians are being portrayed with will always be kind and harmless (the Prime Minister cheering during a tennis match by Michal Šula).
All the photographs show "kind" Czech humour, so often seen in specialized magazines like Do it yourself. That showed very much in the category Portrait - Jan Zátorský's series "Doubles" and Martin Kollar's "People in Wedding Rooms" remind us more of the teach-yourself-how-to photograph books than of a work done by professionals.
On top of that, the traditionally vaguest category Art confuses the organizers themselves who do not know whether to display photographs of artists and of artwork and historical buildings or of "neat artsy things".
The category Nature is represented by photographs of cute animals and poppy seeds, which is something that every student of photography school has at home in huge quantities, regardless of the fact none of the photographs has any relation to the year 2007.
Half-cooked
On the long-term basis Czech Press Photo represents an event that media like to inform about with gratitude. It gives out a number of prizes, which means a number of photographers are awarded every year.
Because of that it is welcomed by media themselves, since they stand a high chance of having one of their photographers awarded and that is much more interesting for them as a form of marketing than " the media
self-control".
Czech Press Photo is certainly loved by everybody, including politicians. Namely the Mayor of Prague Pavel Bém and the Czech President Václav Klaus know how to benefit from this type of event, while no one seems to be worried about doing it only "half-way". It is, in fact, the only real reflection of our times - doing it half-way.
If the exhibition´s aim is to fish out photographs that would otherwise remain unnoticed in the Czech media world, then we can easily live without it, can´t we?
CZECH PRESS PHOTO 2007. Old Town City Hall Gallery, Prague until 31 January 2008.
