Výstava 100kamžiků - English

The so-called pictorial department at ČTK was established six years after the agency's founding. The impetus for its creation did not come from ČTK or the editorial offices of the agency’s subscribers but from outside—specifically, the press department of the government.

From 1919, Jano Šrámek, an employee of this department, served as the personal photographer to President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and founded the presidential photo archive, where all the president’s photographs were stored. This archive was transferred to the government press department and then to ČTK, laying the foundation for an impressive collection of negatives.

In its early days, the photographic service was small and primarily served government offices and the presidential office. ČTK began creating current photographs for the daily press in 1924. That same year, regional branches of ČTK also started distributing photographs. However, their image production was sporadic and largely depended on the personal initiative and skills of individual reporters.

At the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, influenced by the first Czechoslovak photojournalism magazine, "Pestrý týden," the understanding of journalistic photography began to change. The ČTK archive gradually filled with not only state portraits but also vibrant photographs from sports and cultural events, snapshots of human work and leisure. This shift inspired greater initiative from ČTK's regional branches, which started sending photographs from political visits, high-profile court cases, and romantic sceneries.

The most significant organizer of ČTK's photographic service was poet and translator Artuš Černík (1900 - 1953), who joined the agency in 1926. Within two years, he became the head of the photo department. "Artuš Černík was an invaluable soul," wrote famous Czech poet Jaroslav Seifert in his memoirs, "All the Beauty of the World." In addition to firmly organizing the work of photojournalists, Černík also established contacts with photo agencies in several European countries.

Černík created event plans for reporters, who then photographed the assigned reports, developed and copied the images, added text, pasted them on paper, and prepared them for distribution. There are accounts that the production was placed in tins and often thrown out the window to messengers.

In the very beginning, during the 1920s, the agency did not provide photographic copies but rather ready-to-print matrices. These were delivered to newspaper editorial offices by messengers, typically in quantities of five to eight. A significant disadvantage was the uniformity; all clients received identical images that they could not modify to suit their editorial needs. Later, messengers began delivering paper enlargements, which allowed editorial offices to change the crop or format of the images. However, not everyone received these, and those first on the delivery route had the best selection. The process was cumbersome and time-consuming, prompting the need for a more modern form of photo distribution. This need was met with the connection of ČTK's new headquarters to a pneumatic mail system and later with the invention of the so-called wirephoto.

Initially, ČTK photojournalists mainly used wooden cameras with large 13x18 cm formats, weighing up to 15 kilograms. The supply of heavy glass negatives was also limited, allowing for only one or two, rarely three, shots from a single event, and these had to be taken from a tripod. The original Leica-Standard cameras were eventually replaced by more modern and smaller Rolleicord and Rolleiflex reflex cameras with a 6x6 cm format.

In May 1934, the agency's photojournalists covered about a hundred news events, with the presidential election being by far the most extensive. In the Vladislav Hall at Prague Castle, five agency photographers worked with six cameras, while four others captured public reactions in the streets. The first photos were sent to subscribers by noon, allowing some evening papers on May 24, 1934, to publish reports with images. International clients received the first election photos the same day via the fastest trains and airmail services.

Since 1931, ČTK's photographic service faced competition from the ambitious agency Centropress. In the late 1930s, following a parliamentary proposal, the two agencies underwent a complex merger under the Centropress name, officially merging under the press department of the government on January 1, 1939.

As agency historian Jan Stejskal writes in his book "News from the Czech Century," this merger was a crucial step from a historical perspective. The ČTK photo archive was moved to the Centropress building in Prague’s Vinohrady, thus preserving it. The other agency archives were destroyed in a fire at the ČTK headquarters on today's Opletalova Street in the final days of World War II.

The first transmission revolution came in 1936 with the introduction of the Belinograph, a device for long-distance cable transmission of photographs. French technician Edouard Belin demonstrated his invention in Prague in February, and by August, the first unit arrived in Czechoslovakia. However, the device was expensive, and ČTK could not afford it at the time. It was placed at the main post office on Jindřišská Street in Prague, near the ČTK headquarters.

The principle of the Belinograph involved converting various shades of gray in a photograph into electric currents of varying intensity using appropriate optics. These currents were transmitted via telephone lines to illuminate a photosensitive film at the receiving end. The resulting image, though somewhat degraded by line patterns, was then used to produce a photograph.

The first image for ČTK transmitted by the Belinograph arrived in Prague from the Berlin Summer Olympics in August 1936. ČTK used the Belinograph for distributing its images for the first time in October that year, sending pictures of the visit of Romanian King Carol II to Paris. ČTK issued a special report stating:

"The photograph taken at 9:15 AM was shortly thereafter transmitted from Prague's main post office to the dedicated Belinograph station of the Paris Soir magazine. The entire 13 x 16 cm image was transmitted in 12 minutes, so the image arrived in Paris around 10:00 AM Western European time."

In the 1930s, ČTK's photo department operated in two shifts and had three sections—current events, matrices, and archives—but only two permanent employees. The agency provided an increasing number of current photojournalism reports to nearly a hundred Czechoslovak newspapers and magazines. While there were about a hundred reports annually in the mid-1930s, this number tripled by the beginning of World War II.

The dramatic developments in neighboring states led ČTK, as the state news agency, to engage in government propaganda. This is evidenced in the photo archive by numerous images from the 1938 mobilization. After the Munich Agreement and the capitulation of the Czechoslovak government, which actor Zdeněk Štěpánek was forced to read on the radio from the ČTK building, ČTK photographers documented the evacuation of Czech citizens from the border regions occupied by Nazi Germany.

The establishment of the so-called Second Republic also brought the onset of censorship. Similar measures had last been in place long-term during World War I. The position of ČTK deteriorated significantly, as hundreds of periodicals ceased to exist in what was left of Czechoslovakia after it lost its border regions.

One of the first actions of Nazi censorship was the selection of photographs from the arrival of German occupation forces in Prague on March 15, 1939. Only those showing people welcoming the occupiers were allowed. A photo showing people shaking their fists at the occupying forces was forbidden from publication.

The authorship of the photograph, which is among the most famous images of World War II in Europe, is disputed. Authors' names for agency photographs began to be recorded only after World War II. In this case, two authors are in contention—Josef Mucha and Josef Novák.

At that time, major events were photographed by multiple reporters simultaneously. A messenger would periodically collect films from them and run to the laboratory for quick development. The films were usually not labeled with names, and if not immediately identified, it became impossible to determine who took which film.

The photograph appeared in many textbooks and historical books after the war and still plays a key role in our perception of the German occupation and Czech behavior during the Protectorate. However, many photos taken that day do not show protests against the occupiers; instead, they depict the welcoming of German soldiers.

Immediately after the occupation and the establishment of Nazi protectorate over Bohemia and Moravia, agency news coverage was subjected to German press supervision rules. Oskar Ullrich, the appointed overseer, focused mainly on photo censorship. Photographers had to submit all photos and negatives for review. Although Ullrich's measures were lifted after a few days, this brief period of illusory freedom did not last long.

The leadership of ČTK, headed by Zdeněk Schmoranz and Arnošt Bareš, joined the resistance. However, before the war broke out in September 1939, the Gestapo dismantled their intelligence network. Schmoranz was executed in August 1942, and Bareš was sent to a concentration camp, though he survived internment.

Meanwhile, ČTK's headquarters became a tool of the occupying forces. The building housed the SD security police office, a branch of the Nazi press agency DNB, and the press service of the Reich Protector. News coverage was once again under strict censorship.

For example, photographs from the funeral of student Jan Opletal, one of the last major anti-Nazi demonstrations, only entered the ČTK photo archive after the war. Similarly, ČTK retrospectively acquired images documenting the Czechoslovak resistance abroad.

ČTK photojournalists meticulously documented the final days of World War II, particularly in Prague, and later the post-war reconstruction of the state. The number of employees at the national news agency increased several-fold in the first years after liberation.

At that time, the agency was temporarily based in Prague's Vinohrady because its headquarters on Opletalova Street burned down on May 8, 1945. The fire destroyed the entire text archive of the agency. However, the photographic archive was preserved thanks to its merger with the Centropress agency, which had been located in Vinohrady since the late 1930s.

After the war, ČTK was placed under the administration of the newly established Ministry of Information, headed by Communist Václav Kopecký. The state regulated all media at that time. Government communication with the public through the press became centralized, and ČTK began to gain an exclusive position in the newly established system.

An important part of the agency's operations until the advent of digital technology were the photo labs. Many future ČTK photojournalists began their careers as lab technicians. In the labs, exposed films were developed in chemical baths in darkrooms, enlarged, and polished after transferring the image onto photo paper. Reproduction negatives were also produced for distribution.

At its peak during the analog era in the 1980s, ČTK's labs processed the daily output of up to 30 photojournalists. The labs also served the public, helping to improve the agency's finances.

In the late 1950s, ČTK began using its own wirephoto devices for long-distance image transmission. This technology was primarily intended for the agency's needs but was occasionally offered to external clients, especially contractual partners receiving ČTK's image news service. The wirephoto technology became vital for ČTK, allowing the receipt of photographs not only from foreign agencies but also for transmitting images between ČTK's regional branches and the Prague headquarters.

After the communist coup in February 1948, ČTK came under the control of the communist dictatorship and became a tool for the political propaganda of the ruling party. Although the agency was formally subordinated to the government, it was effectively managed by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.

During this period, the news production was dominated by photographs depicting the building of socialism—such as the establishment of agricultural cooperatives, the breaking up of fields, youth construction projects, and the building of factories and mines. ČTK photojournalists often had privileged positions when photographing events. However, their work was meticulously controlled to align with the objectives of the ruling Communist Party.

The photo news editorial staff continued to grow, and the specialization of photojournalists began to emerge—some focused on political events, particularly documenting the activities of communist officials, while others concentrated on sports, science, or agriculture.

In the post-war period, ČTK started including the names of authors with their photographs. Notable photographers from this time included Alexandr Hampl, Josef Mucha, Josef Novák, Jiří Rublič, and Emil Bican. However, some photographs from this period lack author attribution, especially for events covered by multiple photojournalists.

After 1948, the communist regime tried to conceal events and personalities that did not fit into the ideological narrative of the time, affecting both the present and history. All those who emigrated, were executed in the 1950s, or were otherwise persecuted disappeared from the media.

While in many other photo archives, "undesirable" materials were destroyed, ČTK never resorted to such brutal methods. The prohibition of using ideologically forbidden materials meant they were placed in the so-called red archives. Specifically, the original archive envelope was sealed, and its cover was prominently crossed out in red, indicating that the material was under special restrictions.

Another chapter involved editing the photographs—cropping and retouching. Some unwanted elements were removed immediately, while other photos were edited even years later when censors decided to remove certain now "ideologically unsuitable" individuals from historical documents. Censors often anticipated possible misinterpretations of the images, leading to adjustments that might seem tragically comical today.

ČTK's regional network of photojournalists began to take shape in the late 1940s and gradually expanded over the next two decades. However, a significant number of regional photos were still taken by Prague-based photojournalists. This included not only the work trips of communist officials but also sports events and the documentation of seasonal agricultural work.

In 1947, the ČTK photo editorial branch was established in Brno, with experienced photojournalist Emil Bican (1916 - 1991) tasked with its founding. Bican later established the ČTK branch in Olomouc and covered the Winter Olympics in Grenoble in 1968.

Another experienced ČTK photojournalist, Věněk Švorčík, permanently took over the Ostrava region in the 1950s. Like Bican, he occasionally traveled abroad in the 1960s, for instance, with the national football team.

At the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, permanent photojournalists Jiří Vlach and Oldřich Holan joined in Plzeň and Ústí nad Labem, respectively. ČTK also had photojournalists in Slovak regions, whose work ended up in the archive of the successor Slovak agency TASR after the split of Czechoslovakia.

The first regional ČTK photographers were responsible for relatively large areas compared to today. For instance, the Brno office covered the entire southern half of Moravia, including what are now the Zlín Region and a significant part of the Vysočina Region. The Plzeň photojournalist traveled to the southernmost parts of the Šumava region as well as the Karlovy Vary area.

However, the speed of delivering photographs was significantly limited until the wirephoto network was established between the ČTK central office in Prague and the regions. Regional photographers, or “krajánci,” sent their photographed material to Prague for processing by postal trains or even buses.

The urgency to publish photos was incomparable to today. The only deadline was the newspaper's cutoff, and this applied only to extraordinary events or the most important sports matches.

With the development of the wirephoto system, its operators were added to regional offices to ensure the transmission of developed photos to the Prague headquarters. However, only a few photos from each film made it to the archive this way. The regional photographers sent the films with complete photo reports later via regular mail.

One of the strong points of ČTK's photo news, starting from the 1930s, has been sports photography. Although the technology of the time did not allow for the sharp and detailed images of races and sports events that we have today, many unforgettable photographs of athletes and their performances were still captured.

Sports photography has always been one of the most challenging disciplines, requiring photographers not only to have a good eye and lighting but also a great deal of quick reflexes. This was especially true in the analog era, when photos were taken on expensive films with very limited capacity.

During the Cold War, sports was one of the few topics that interested foreign media on both sides of the Iron Curtain. This interest extended not only to various championships but also to athletes whose fame transcended borders. ČTK photojournalists often gained access behind the scenes, resulting in very valuable photographs.

In the 1960s, ČTK photojournalists who excelled in sports photography began to travel abroad occasionally. They often developed their photos in “field” conditions, and for major events, a wirephoto operator accompanied them to ensure the transmission of images to Prague.

One of the prominent figures who left an indelible mark on the ČTK photo archive is Jovan Dezort. Born in Brno on November 27, 1934, Dezort worked at ČTK from 1960 to 1970. Like many other photojournalists, he began his career in the ČTK lab. With a camera, he specialized primarily in culture, but his spontaneous and natural shots of daily life are also notable.

In 1968, Dezort spent two months as a war photographer in Vietnam. His Vietnamese report was sold by ČTK to the West and was published in Czechoslovakia only several years later.

Dezort returned to Vietnam once more in 1973, as the war was nearing its end. His series capturing the lives of ordinary people, titled "The Peace of Vietnam," won the top prize in the International Organization of Journalists' (IOJ) global competition. By then, he had already received another prestigious award—the Gold Seal at the World Press Photo in The Hague for 1970.

After leaving ČTK, Jovan Dezort worked for six years at the weekly Vlasta and later at the trade union magazine Svět práce. In 1984, he became a freelancer. The Association of Professional Photographers of the Czech Republic awarded Dezort the Czech Photography Personality of the Year for 2014.

A significant aspect of Jovan Dezort's work includes photographs of famous personalities, including global icons. He regularly photographed cultural events such as the Prague Spring, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and various jazz festivals. His camera captured legends like Herbert von Karajan, Louis Armstrong, and Ella Fitzgerald. Many of these celebrities were photographed in candid moments.

"Back then, famous people didn't run away from photographers, and there was no tabloid press. But mainly, ČTK photojournalists had privileges; we could go almost anywhere, we were an elite agency," Dezort recalled in an interview. However, luck or collaboration with colleagues often played a role.

The photograph of the first female astronaut Valentina Tereshkova at a hairdresser's was a matter of chance. "I was supposed to wait in the hallway for her to arrive. I didn't know from where. Suddenly, a door opened, and I saw her sitting under a hairdryer. I quickly snapped one picture—there was no time for more as bodyguards were around her, and one of them immediately closed the door. If he had noticed I took a picture of her with curlers, he would have confiscated my film. Later, I traveled around the country with Valentina Tereshkova, photographing her, but those were all official events," Dezort recalled.

Until the advent of the internet in the mid-1990s, wirephoto was the only effective way to send photographs to distant locations. Transmitting a black-and-white photo took approximately 15 minutes, but if there were line issues or noise, the transmission had to be repeated, extending the time. A color photograph took more than half an hour to transmit.

ČTK's privileged position was utilized in October 1968 by Anna Čáslavská, mother of gymnast Věra Čáslavská, one of the most successful Olympians with seven gold medals. She was able to see photos of her daughter's wedding to runner Josef Odložil in Mexico City before the media received them.

Věra Čáslavská became a global star after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, where she won three gold medals and was even received by Emperor Hirohito. Four years later in Mexico, shortly after the occupation of Czechoslovakia, she won four gold medals. She was named the Athlete of the Year 1968 and the second most popular woman on the planet, after former US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

Libor Hajský joined ČTK in 1966 as an 18-year-old photo lab technician. In August 1968, despite having little experience, he photographed the Soviet invasion of Prague's streets. "Few of the older photojournalists dared to go there," Hajský recalled about how he captured his images, which are among the most striking testimonies of the August occupation.

He documented the dramatic events at the Czechoslovak Radio building and Wenceslas Square. He narrowly escaped death when a driverless truck plowed into the crowd at the radio building.

The color photos Hajský took on 35mm film were saved because they were developed later. However, they ended up in the "red archives" for over 20 years and were not allowed to be published. Most of Hajský's black-and-white negatives were destroyed by Soviet occupiers after they seized the ČTK building.

After completing his basic military service, Libor Hajský permanently joined the ranks of ČTK photojournalists in 1971. He excelled in sports photography, including covering the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. "I used to go to bed around four o'clock and get up at six. Even though the ski jumping started at two, I had to be by the jumps from nine to secure a spot," he recalled about the grueling schedule of Olympic photojournalists.

Although the processing and transmission of photographs are much easier today, the logistics for Olympic photojournalists remain similar. Venues are often far apart, and securing a good spot, such as on a slope, can require standing in the cold for several hours. National agencies like ČTK cannot afford to send an "army" of photographers to the Olympics, unlike multinational agencies like AP or Reuters.

Libor Hajský worked at ČTK for a quarter of a century. He left at the end of 1991 and, along with several colleagues, founded the magazine Fotbal. He then photographed for various magazines, ranging from news to lifestyle publications.

For the Czechoslovak communist regime of the 1970s and 1980s, which strongly rejected reforms made before the Warsaw Pact invasion in 1968, the term "normalization" became widely used. This period saw a new wave of repression, increased censorship, and significant self-censorship among journalists.

Many ČTK photographs taken during the transitional months after the Prague Spring fell into the "red archives" for 20 years, making them unpublished. These included images from the funeral of student Jan Palach, who self-immolated in January 1969 in an attempt to awaken the nation from lethargy and incite resistance against the rising normalization.

ČTK continued to document the building of socialism, including various construction projects and volunteer brigades. Some photojournalists who closely collaborated with the communist regime received exceptional opportunities. This included access to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where Jiří Kruliš and Karel Mevald photographed the launch of the first Czechoslovak astronaut, Vladimír Remek. They were the first foreign photojournalists allowed into the heavily guarded complex, whose exact location in present-day Kazakhstan was then a well-kept secret.

In the 1970s and 1980s, ČTK's network of regional photojournalists continued to expand. This included the addition of a photo news office in Olomouc, where Vladislav Galgonek started in 1973, documenting events in central Moravia for nearly 40 years.

Two other regional photojournalists, who joined ČTK just a few years later, had similar professional longevity. Libor Zavoral began photographing the changes in northern Bohemia in 1980, and Igor Zehl joined the Brno office in the early 1980s. Both continue to occasionally assist with ČTK's photojournalism even after retirement.

All three experienced a professional revolution with the transition from analog to digital technology. Many of their film photographs were digitized only recently, being presented to the public for the first time.

ČTK began systematically digitizing its photo archive at its own expense in the second half of the 1990s. In several waves, they digitized the most important and in-demand photographs after expert selection. Extensive digitization of archival collections from the 1970s and 1980s began thanks to a joint project between ČTK and the National Library (NK), which started in 2019. NK has since drawn funding for this from the state budget.

The celebrations following the Czechoslovak hockey team's victory over the Soviet Union in March 1969 were the last major mass protest against the communist regime for a long time. For nearly the next 20 years, public gatherings were limited to manifestations celebrating the building of socialism, such as May Day parades or military displays. These events followed a set script and were documented by ČTK across the country.

The situation changed in the fall of 1988. In October, an unauthorized demonstration to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia was met with police intervention. In December, during the visit of French President François Mitterrand to Prague, the regime exceptionally allowed an opposition demonstration, but the photographs could not be published. In January 1989, on the 20th anniversary of student Jan Palach's self-immolation, a series of demonstrations broke out in Prague, known as "Palach Week," which were also violently suppressed.

While ČTK photographers documented all these protests and police actions, their photos did not reach the public. Some photographers did not bring their films to the newsroom and hid them at home or in cottages, only submitting them to the ČTK photo archive after the Velvet Revolution. Among these photographers were two who are still with ČTK today—Michal Krumphanzl and Michal Doležal.

The Velvet Revolution did not start ideally for ČTK photojournalists. According to witnesses, even some senior ČTK staff who cooperated with the communist State Security attended the student gathering on November 17, 1989, at Albertov. Younger photojournalists, who had managed to photograph and hide images from previous protests, recalled that their superiors sent them away from Albertov. As a result, no ČTK photojournalists reached Národní třída, where security forces brutally suppressed the demonstration. Therefore, ČTK's archive includes this pivotal historical moment through contributed photographs rather than its own photojournalists' work.

The rapid developments in the following days and weeks were accompanied by fears about the future— which was partly the reason why non-Prague demonstrations were documented by ČTK's regional photographers ("krajánci") several days later than their Prague colleagues. Many ČTK photos from this period do not have an author credited.

During the revolution in Prague, the opposition's key meetings with the ruling power were often attended by ČTK's youngest photojournalists, who had not been compromised by the communist regime. In the following months, these photojournalists also began traveling to the West, especially accompanying the new president, Václav Havel, who had significant international standing.

The work of ČTK photojournalists changed significantly after the 1989 revolution. They covered a much wider range of events and had to complete far more assignments in a shorter period. ČTK underwent a deep transformation, and the number of its employees was drastically reduced. People associated with the communist regime, including some experienced photojournalists, left the agency.

"Suddenly everyone had to do everything. It was no longer one report a week, but three reports a day, which at that time had to be done on film," recalled photojournalist Michal Doležal. In 1993, there were six photojournalists left in the Prague office and another six in regional branches. On average, the agency sent 50 photos to clients daily.

The personnel reduction was also linked to the split of Czechoslovakia. Almost the entire production of photos taken in Slovak territory during the existence of Czechoslovakia ended up in the archive of the Slovak agency TASR. However, even after the federation's split, ČTK maintained a relatively large editorial office in Slovakia, including photojournalists, for more than 15 years.

The 1990s were marked by the advent of digital technologies. Although films still had to be developed for several years, digital scanners began to be used for further processing. ČTK acquired its first laptops, which allowed for remote photo transmission. A significant transformation came with satellite broadcasting, which ČTK started using in 1994 to deliver photos to clients. Two years later, the digital processing and remote transmission of photos from regional ČTK offices to Prague were completed. In 1997, ČTK tested transmitting photos via mobile phones, which were then still rare. At the same time, ČTK experimented with distributing photos via email.

A major breakthrough came with the purchase of the first Nikon digital cameras in 1999, which greatly accelerated the creation of the news service. However, the first generation of digital cameras had limitations, including very low image resolution and imperfect color and tonal quality.

ČTK also equipped its foreign correspondents with digital cameras, enabling them to take photos of events they reported on without the expense of sending photojournalists. At the turn of the millennium, they became the first multimedia reporters in Czech media, simultaneously producing and editing audio recordings.

At the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century, the Czech Republic faced unprecedented floods twice within five years. Intense rains caused rivers to overflow, flooding Moravia and Silesia in July 1997. The floods resulted in the deaths of 50 people and damaged or destroyed 29,000 homes. In August 2002, floods struck Bohemia, including Prague, affecting 43 districts across ten regions and causing 17 fatalities.

Both events demanded extraordinary efforts from ČTK photojournalists. Documenting the aftermath of such natural disasters involves working for many days with little rest. Journalists often find that the events directly affect their families and themselves. They also face logistical challenges, such as transportation difficulties, power outages, and disruptions in telephone and data communications.

The Moravian floods occurred at the end of the analog era, and ČTK published about 220 photos from the event in 1997, which were used only in print media at the time. Five years later, during the Bohemian floods, ČTK released 1,550 photos. These were published by early online media and received significant international attention, particularly because of the floods in Prague, leading to several exhibitions. In 2021, a comparable number of photos were released from the tornado in southern Moravia, although the affected area was much smaller compared to 1997 and 2002.

The turn of the millennium brought the first major international political events to the Czech Republic. In September 2000, Prague hosted the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings. In addition to extensive security measures, the events were accompanied by massive anti-globalization protests. Several journalists were injured during clashes with the police, including ČTK photojournalist Tomáš Železný.

An even more significant event was the NATO summit held in Prague in November 2002, also at the Congress Center, the former Palace of Culture. Besides the main meetings, numerous other events took place, including protests. Many regional photojournalists assisted in Prague, and some photo editors also took to the field. The US-Russia summit in Prague in 2010 and the funeral of former President Václav Havel in December 2011, attended by world leaders, also required extraordinary efforts.

For events of such magnitude, the number of journalists allowed at certain program points is often restricted. In these cases, the national news agency typically gets priority and provides pool photos to others. ČTK photojournalists also operated in this manner during some events with limited access due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The race against time for photojournalists became even more intense with the advent of digital technologies, online media, and social networks, shrinking the turnaround time to minutes, if not seconds. ČTK adjusted its editorial procedures to minimize the delay between the event and the delivery of the photograph. Since 2007, photojournalists have been testing the transmission of some images using handheld PDA computers.

A breakthrough in sports photography came with the new generation of cameras, specifically the Nikon D3 for ČTK. In sports reporting, the use of wireless remote shutters also proved beneficial.

Today, the ability to send photos within seconds of taking them is possible for nearly everyone thanks to mobile data networks. However, even the best smartphones are not suitable for reportage photography, especially in sports or any event where the photographer cannot get closer than tens of meters to the subject. Since 2016, all ČTK staff photographers have been able to send images directly from their cameras.

The need to transmit a larger number of high-resolution images, which means larger data volumes, led ČTK to switch from satellite transmission to computer-based transmission (FTP) in 2017. In 2018, the year of its 100th anniversary, ČTK published more than 90,000 images from its photojournalists for the first time.

Many sporting events hosted by Czech cities have drawn global attention, such as the Ice Hockey World Championship, which was held in the Czech Republic for the eleventh time this year. These events are covered by large international news agencies, particularly AP, but ČTK remains a key provider of photographic news not only for domestic but also for foreign media.

In addition to hockey, the annual Golden Spike athletics meeting in Ostrava attracts significant attention, bringing in the world's top stars. Prague's O2 Arena has hosted major tennis events, including Davis Cup and Fed Cup finals, as well as the premiere of the Laver Cup. Until 2019, fans from around the world flocked to Brno for motorcycle races, and there was significant interest in World Championships and World Cup races in biathlon in Nové Město na Moravě.

Photographing sports events requires meticulous preparation and considerable experience, including knowledge of the sport, the venue, and the terrain. Accredited photographers have designated areas, but often arrive at the venues hours in advance to secure the best shots.

The regional network of photojournalists and regular collaborators for ČTK has stabilized in number over the past 20 years. Czech media have shown increasing interest in regional and sports event photos, leading ČTK to establish its last photojournalist post in 2005 in Pardubice. Since then, ČTK has had photographers in 12 regions, with Prague photojournalists sharing Central Bohemia with colleagues from neighboring regions. Today, ČTK boasts the most extensive network of photojournalists among Czech media.

Many of the current regional photojournalists have spent most of their professional careers working for ČTK. Luboš Pavlíček has been providing photojournalism from Vysočina for a quarter-century, Radek Petrášek from Liberec for about the same duration, and Václav Šálek has been a ČTK photojournalist in South Moravia for over 20 years. Other long-term employees or collaborators include Jaroslav Ožana from Ostrava, David Taneček from Hradec Králové, and Václav Pancer from South Bohemia.

All of them assist in neighboring regions as needed, and Václav Šálek often travels to Slovakia. Some of them have also documented significant sports events abroad.

The quick adaptation to changes brought about by the advent of digital technologies at ČTK was largely successful thanks to the presence of Michal Doležal on the team. Since his internship in the UK in 1992, the current doyen of ČTK photojournalism has significantly contributed to the introduction of innovations in the newsroom, including image transmission and the transition to new types of cameras.

Michal Doležal (* September 26, 1954) joined ČTK in 1986, starting in the photo laboratory. As a photojournalist, he has covered ten Ice Hockey World Championships and the Olympic Games. He has photographed World and European Football Championships and top meetings of leading world politicians and economists. In 1999, he won the Sport category in the Czech Press Photo competition with a photo of figure skaters.

"The best thing about working at ČTK is meeting amazing people with whom you can sometimes have a conversation. It's not so much about the photos as it is about the experiences," Doležal said in an interview. He retired from fieldwork in 2018 but continues to provide technical support to photojournalists. He also leads a basic photojournalism course at the ČTK Academy, sharing his knowledge with both the public and his writing colleagues for many years.

The first ČTK photojournalist to become the overall winner of the Czech Press Photo competition was Michal Kamaryt in 2013. The international jury selected his image of politician David Rath at court, taken through an elevator window, as the Photo of the Year.

Opportunities to photograph the former governor during court hearings were limited, as he was usually surrounded by judicial guards and reporters often had similar shots. "My shot was taken when there were not many photographers left on the scene. I waited to see if I could capture him through the elevator window," explained Michal Kamaryt about the circumstances of the photo. He believes the award-winning image is somewhat like a portrait but "gives people a chance to let their imagination run wild."

Rath's photograph also won the People in the News category. Michal Kamaryt had previously won the same category in 2002 with a picture of politician Václav Klaus at a rock concert during an election campaign.

Michal Kamaryt has been working at ČTK since 1992. He transitioned from a photo editor to a photojournalist in 2001. He has photographed three Olympic Games, eleven Ice Hockey World Championships, and documented European and World Championships in football, classical skiing, biathlon, and floorball, and he has twice photographed the Davis Cup tennis finals.

One of ČTK's most commercially successful photographs is Michal Kamaryt's shot from the semifinals of the 2011 Ice Hockey World Championship in Bratislava. The photo captures Finnish forward Mikael Granlund's remarkable goal, where he scooped the puck onto the blade of his stick behind the net and flicked it past Russian goalie Konstantin Barulin. Experts dubbed it the goal of the century.

Michal Kamaryt was the only photojournalist who managed to perfectly capture the action. The photo won the Sport category at the 2011 Czech Press Photo awards. Kamaryt's photograph became the basis for a postage stamp in Finland, which sold out within a day.

According to Kamaryt, the successful shot was due to strategic positioning. Two ČTK photojournalists covered the match, arranging their spots to ensure the entire ice rink was within their view. Bratislava photojournalist Jan Koller took a central position opposite the benches, while Kamaryt was on the opposite side above the Russian team's goal. "This was the decisive moment. Mikael Granlund performed his trick right in front of me," Kamaryt recalled.

Photojournalism is a field where men still significantly outnumber women, even though the overall ratio of men and women in journalism in the Czech Republic is almost equal. One frequently cited reason is the physical demands of the job—carrying photographic equipment that can weigh between eight to 30 kilograms and needing "sharp elbows" in a crowded press environment. Agency photography also involves irregular working hours and requires being ready for unexpected events.

The first female photojournalists at ČTK made their mark during the analog era. For instance, from 1962 to 1990, Zuzana Humpálová focused on culture and portrait photography. In Bratislava and Prague, Jana Noseková (now Žantovská) worked from 1990 to 1993. Alexandra Mlejnková covered events in eastern Bohemia from 1996 to 2012. Both had to be versatile and able to photograph everything, just like today’s agency photojournalists.

The first female ČTK photojournalist to succeed in the Czech Press Photo competition was Judita Thomová (now Mauerová) in 1997. Petra Mášová was recognized in 2001 and 2002, and Kateřina Šulová, who has been with ČTK for 12 years, won in 2019. The Prague photojournalist team today includes Michaela Říhová, and Marta Myšková also worked in the team for several years.

Roman Vondrouš, a photojournalist at ČTK and one of the few Czech photographers to achieve the highest global recognition, won the World Press Photo contest for 2012 in the Sports category with his series of photographs from the Velká Pardubická steeplechase.

Photographing horse races is Vondrouš's lifelong passion. He consistently captures both the sporting environment and the behind-the-scenes aspects of horse racing.

A native of Pardubice, Vondrouš has been working at ČTK since 2005. Like every agency photojournalist, he covers a wide range of events. He doesn't settle for routine descriptiveness typical of agency photography; his images have a distinctive artistic style.

Roman Vondrouš has received numerous domestic and international awards. He won the main prize at the Czech Press Photo competition twice, in 2020 and 2023, and has been recognized over thirty times in various categories. The Association of Professional Photographers awarded him the title Personality of Czech Photography for 2022.

Vondrouš graduated from the Institute of Creative Photography at the Silesian University in Opava, where he now works as a lecturer within his doctoral studies. He also gives public lectures, for example, as part of the ČTK Academy.

In recent years, Roman Vondrouš has excelled in the Czech Press Photo (CPP) competition with photographs that might be considered routine news coverage. In 2019, he won the "People in the News" category with a series of photographs of then-Prime Minister Andrej Babiš during his visit to the White House.

The following year, Vondrouš became the overall winner of CPP with a photograph of AI scientist Tomáš Mikolov walking through a disinfection gate at the National Industry Summit during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, Roman Vondrouš once again dominated the "People in the News" category, this time with a photograph titled "Appointment of the Prime Minister," which shows President Miloš Zeman in a plexiglass box during the appointment ceremony of the new prime minister, due to COVID-19 safety measures at the Lány Castle.

He won the main prize at the Czech Press Photo 2023 with a photograph taken at a court, capturing supporters of Patrik Tušl, who was on trial for harassing the head of the Czech Medical Chamber, Milan Kubek. Vondrouš mentioned that he doesn't particularly enjoy photographing such events.

"Sometimes the situation escalates and a scuffle breaks out, as it did in this case. Initially, it didn't seem so, but within minutes, it changed and resulted in a clash with the police, court guards, and later with riot police. Photojournalists then have no choice but to get as close as possible, even at the risk of getting hit," Vondrouš said.

International and domestic awards frequently honor ČTK photojournalist Roman Vondrouš for his sports photography. He has won the International Sports Press Association (AIPS) awards three times.

In 2020, he won the AIPS award in the Photography Series category with his horse racing photos. The following year, he placed second in the same category with a series of photos of Bohemians Prague 1905 fans watching matches from ladders outside the stadium due to COVID-19 restrictions. This series won first place in the Sports Series category at the Pictures of The Year International competition and also won the Sports category at the Czech Press Photo competition.

The fans on ladders became a popular subject for many photographers, but Vondrouš returned to the “ladder stand” repeatedly, giving his photos a distinctive artistic style.

Vondrouš’s winter sports photos are also successful. In 2014, he won the Sports category at the Czech Press Photo competition with a series from the Sochi Olympics. In 2023, the jury of the Siena International Photo Awards included his photo titled "Golden Olympic Ride of Ester Ledecká" among significant artworks. Most recently, Vondrouš scored in the AIPS awards with a series from the 2023 World Cup in canoe slalom in Prague.

Photojournalists at CTK have been documenting daily news and life changes in our country for a century, creating a unique photo archive that serves as the nation's visual memory.

In the beginning, there were only a few pioneers and several hundred photos annually. In its 100th year of existence, the photojournalism service of the Czech News Agency (CTK) delivered over 100,000 images to its clients for the first time in a single year.

Today, anyone can view both current and archival photographs in the "superphotobank" CTK - Profimedia, established after the Czech News Agency acquired the competing Profimedia.CZ group in 2021. In addition to CTK's own production, it represents several dozen foreign agencies and has been offering a selection of works from many represented authors for 30 years.

Editorial selections of the most interesting photos from CTK's production can be viewed here:
- [CTK Top Picks]
- [Latest photos (current events)]
- [Selection from CTK's century-old photo archive]