What was 2023 like? The shots chosen by Aktuálně.cz photojournalist Jakub Plíhal for the series Photos of the Year speak volumes about his character. “I couldn’t help but choose images from a frontline village in Ukraine and the humanitarian center here, which was later bombed by the Russians,” he says. In the photo gallery, he offers readers not only his view of important events, but also pictures that have not yet appeared on Aktuálně.cz.
(Part 6 of the series) – When Jakub Plíhal was preparing a selection for the series Photos of the Year, which presents the personal view of various photographers and photojournalists on the past year, he discovered that he had actually already completed a large part of it since September. That is when photojournalists send their pictures to the Czech Press Photo competition. And so he decided to offer readers a little behind-the-scenes look this year.
“Have you ever wondered what the Czech Press Photo jury actually chooses from? I can’t offer you the pictures of my colleagues, but I will introduce you to some of the ones I sent to the competition this year,” he says. “In no way am I judging or, God forbid, knocking down the award-winning pictures of my colleagues. Their work is of very high quality! It just occurred to me that other pictures might also be interesting for someone,” he explains.
“After all, it is also the logical key to the selection for the summarizing gallery for the whole year, and you may find some of the selected photos later on at the exhibition of the named competition. Who knows. In any case, I couldn’t help but choose pictures from the frontline village in Ukraine and the local humanitarian center, which later bombed by the Russians. Or Andrej Babiš coming to the Municipal Court in Prague for trial,” states photojournalist Jakub Plíhal.
However, the photo gallery also offers images that have not yet been published anywhere. For some reason, they did not fit into the reports, or at the time it was not possible to publish them with regard to the safety of people living in war-torn Ukraine. Jakub Plíhal’s author’s comments on individual selected images also offer a behind-the-scenes look at the photojournalist’s work.
“In the rest of the series, you will find portraits, something from travels and reports, in short, a very modest and subjective cross-section of the work of the Aktuálně.cz photojournalist. Unfortunately, the selection also includes a picture from the recent tragedy at Charles University,” adds the photographer.
The Photos of the Year series has an unconventional form this year
The “Top Photo” series has been on the Aktuálně.cz website for several years. This year it comes under the new title Photos of the Year. While in previous years he usually started with the best news photographs created for Aktuálně.cz, Hospodářské noviny, the Ekonom weekly and other projects of the Economia publishing house, this year it is different. It was started by photo galleries focused more on lighter magazine and lifestyle topics. We decided to bring news galleries reflecting important events only in the last days of this year and the first days of the next.
The goal of the Photos of the Year series is not only to commemorate interesting events, but also to appreciate the work of photographers and to show how excellent images they create in one year. Photographers have a completely free hand when choosing them, it is their author’s choice.
About the author of the images
Jakub Plíhal (33 years old). He has been taking photos for Aktuálně.cz since his studies, as a permanent member since 2015
photojournalist, since 2019 as chief photographer. He travels around the Czech Republic and abroad, from where he brings original photo reports with his own texts. A number of his pictures were shown at Czech Press Photo exhibitions. You can find his photos both on Aktuálně.cz and in Hospodářské noviny. He has been to war-torn Ukraine three times. You can also follow his work here:
X: twitter.com/jakub_plihal
Facebook: facebook.com/jakub.plihal.3
You can find all published parts of the series Photos of the Year at: magazin.aktualne.cz/foto
