Image: Žižka women people mace and other unusual views of Prague from above
For several years now, Tomáš Vocelka, a photographer at Tomáš Vocelka, recorded views from the tower of life in the streets of Prague. On Wednesday, June 24, he ceremoniously presented the mayor of the capital, Zdeněk Hřib, with almost sixty films, which were taken as part of the Prague Grant. “I’ll pass one beautiful stage of my photographic work,” Vocelka said.
The set of views of Prague from the tower began to emerge in about 2016, but some of the shots are even older. “In 2018, I won the Grant of Prague at the Czech Press Photo competition with those pictures. In support of the capital, I photographed this topic intensively for a year,” says Tomáš Vocelka.
The last shots in the series were taken at a time when Prague was already completely empty, paralyzed by a pandemic, ie in the spring of 2020. ” “But then came the second wave of the covid-19 and we had to postpone the handover until the situation got better. In the end, it only worked out now,” says the photographer.
Photographers Tomáš Vocelka (second from left) and Jan Rasch, together with Veronika Souralová, hand over to Mayor Zdeněk Hřib the pictures they offer under the Prague Grant. | Photo: Dan Materna / Czech Photo ops
Vocelka handed over the films to the mayor together with Jan Rasch, who received the Grant of Prague a year later. Veronika Souralová (head of the Czech Press Photo competition) was also present at the handover.
“When photographing Prague under the towers, I wanted to capture the unusual beauty of the views down to the life in the streets. I tried to make the photos artistic and geometric and thus different from the usual news recording,” says Vocelka. When he was creating the basic idea that he would follow when photographing, he remembered the poems of Vítězslav Nezval – especially Prague with the fingers of the rain.
“I like the playfulness of Nezval’s poetics, and I thought it would be nice if I could do something similar. I told myself I’d try to play with a photographic image the way Nezval plays with words,” the photographer said.
In addition to the exhibition Prague Under the Towers, a 60-page catalog was created from the pictures. Some limited edition copies signed by the author are still available in the gallery Czech Photo Center in Prague’s Nové Butovice.
The Prague Grant is an annual creative scholarship focused on documenting the changes in Prague. Cooperation with Czech Press Photo is beneficial for the city, because it creates a unique collection of photographs that map Prague in a special way, from different angles.
About a book
Tomáš Vocelka – Prague under the towers. 60 pages with color photographs, format 24 × 24 cm, paperback. Foreword: Martina Houdek, graphic design: Alena Vocelková. Limited edition signed by the author, price 250 CZK. Available in the gallery Czech Photo Center.