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When I first saw the portraits by Dutch photographer Ruud van Empel in their real size at Leica Gallery Prague, I recollected the time when I was little and my mother dressed me in my nicest dress and took me to the photographer from time to time. Wearing beautiful dresses and looking directly at the camera, many of the children in Empel’s portraits give the impression of such “official” photographs taken for a family album. The only exception is that the children are not standing in a photo studio surrounded by the same borrowed toys, but they are in a forest, surrounded by nature, holding a flower or maybe a squirrel in their hands. At a second look, however, youContinue Reading

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Following the latest violent attack against the Czech Roma community, in which an unknown perpetrators threw petrol bombs into a Roma-inhabited house on Saturday night, leaving a 2-year-old girl in a critical condition, Roma organisations have called on Roma to seek asylum in Canada. At the same time, Canada is urging the Czech government to crack down on operators who they say are probably behind the rising number of Czech Roma seeking asylum. But experts say racism is not the only reason behind the increase. Extremist groups intensifying activityLast week’s incident, which took place just hours after hundreds of far-right extremists marched through the northern Bohemian city of Ústí nad Labem, is not an isolated case of violence against Roma,Continue Reading

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On the night of 30 April, the Czech Republic is dotted with hundreds of bonfires during what is known as Pálení čarodějnic, or the Witches’ Night.The celebration, which has many names and whose origin is not clear, is based on the old custom of lighting fires on the night before 1 May. In the past, the night was surrounded by magic and wizardry and by belief in the special abilities of witches. People believed that evil spirits are stronger than normal on that night, so they performed rites and customs in order to ward off witches and weaken their power. Especially in the Middle Ages, there was a direct association between the powers of witches and the powers of theContinue Reading

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On the occasion of the MuVIM exhibit, Dashenka was published in Spanish for the first time. (Lenka Scheuflerová)Only a few people know that Karel Čapek, one of the most famous Czech writers and the inventor of the word “robot”, was a photography enthusiast, even though his active involvement in photography lasted for a short period of time. An exhibition of Čapek’s photographs in Valencia marks the 70th anniversary of the artist’s death. “Taking the first picture is one of the most thrilling moments in one’s life,” Čapek said in his column Man and Camera, published in October 1930. Karel Čapek, who was born in 1890 and died in 1938, was involved in photography for a some period of time, justContinue Reading

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On Monday the Czech government approved a set of 16 measures to ease the impact of the global financial crisis. All measures proposed in the rescue package, drafted by independent experts from the National Economic Council, the NERV, are aimed at easing the burden for entrepreneurs, so that they can employ as many people as possible even in times of crisis. The only unexpected change that the government added to the crisis plan at the last moment on Monday is a proposal for the self-employed and for companies with fewer than five employees to be able to not pay income tax advance payments this year. When presenting the working version of the anti-crisis plan, Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek told aContinue Reading