Photo essay: Prague in the days when it said goodbye to President Václav Havel
Just before Christmas 2011, Prague plunged into mourning due to the death of the first president of the Czech Republic, Václav Havel. The atmosphere of that time in the streets of the metropolis is captured by the photographs of photographer Kevin V. Ton from the Verum group.
Václav Havel, Czech playwright, essayist, dissident and critic of the communist regime, later politician, statesman, the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic, died on Sunday, December 18, 2011. In Prague, on Wenceslas Square near the Saint Wenceslas Monument, a spontaneous gathering crowds of people.
At six in the evening, church bells rang throughout the country. In the following days, crowds of people came to pay their respects to the remains of Václav Havel in the deconsecrated St. Anne’s Church. On Wednesday, December 21, tens of thousands of people accompanied the coffin with the remains in a funeral procession on its last journey from Prague Crossroads across Charles Bridge to Prague Castle.
The division in the streets of Prague was then documented by photographer Kevin V. Ton. His pictures from that time are provided in the photo gallery attached to this article.
About the photographer:
Kevin V. Ton (* 1966) is a freelance photographer, recipient of numerous awards and this year’s winner of the Prague Grant at the Czech Press Photo competition. He has devoted his entire life to vivid, black-and-white photography with a focus on humanistic documentaries, especially long-term projects. He lives in Prague. He has been involved in street photography for many years, and a few years ago he founded a group together with other photographers Verum Photo. You can follow his work on the website kevin-v-ton.com/on Instagram (@kevinvton) on Facebook (facebook.com/kevin.v.ton).