Jury 2025

 
  The journalistic value of the photographs (informativeness, promptness, relevance) will be assessed hand in hand with their aesthetic value. The images are presented to the jury anonymously. The jury has the right, by majority vote and in the interest of fair evaluation, to reassign entries to a different category, to award only a single image from a series, or to withhold any of the awards. The right to withhold an award applies to all categories of the competition.
 
PETR MLCH, Chair of the Jury, Editor-in-Chief of the ČTK Photobank, CZECH REPUBLIC

In 1999, while in fifth year in the Faculty of Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague, he began to work in the Czech News Agency (ČTK), in what was then the visual news editorial office. Until 2006, he worked in the agency as the editor of visual news at the so-called newsdesk, after which, as the deputy editor-in-chief, he devoted himself to projects aimed at speeding up and improving photographic news production, including the building of a new ČTK photo bank online portal. In 2008, he became editor-in-chief of the Visual News Editorial Office, and in 2009 editor-in-chief of ČTK Photo Bank. In addition to looking after the ČTK photo archive, he mediated collaboration with a number of domestic and foreign partners, including the exclusive partner Associated Press. Under his leadership, ČTK Photo Bank also began to focus on new projects, such as exhibitions, book publication, photo editing and custom photography. He is the co-author of ČTK photographic exhibitions on Václav Havel (2012), in particular the outdoor travelling exhibitions Moments of the Century (2018), Moments of the Velvet Revolution (2019), Unwanted Moments (2020) and Olympic Moments (2021), which can be seen throughout the year all over the republic. In the last few years, he has also devoted himself to projects relating to the monitoring of use and tracking of misuse of photos.

 
ADRIAN EVANS, Director of Panos Pictures, UNITED KINGDOM

Adrian Evans was born in the United Kingdom. He studied art history at the University of York. He worked for three years as a freelance graphic artist and then began working with photography at the archives of the Hutchison agency. In 1990 he became the director of Panos Pictures, and seven years later, he purchased a majority share in the agency. Under his leadership, Panos Pictures has become a major agency specialized in socially engaged photojournalism. Adrian Evans is the author of a number of major photo projects, with topics ranging from professional cycling in Belgium to modern-day slavery in Britain. He is also a jury member for many contests, including World Press Photo, China International Press Photo Contest, Russia’s Press Photo, and the Czech Republic’s Czech Press Photo. Meanwhile, he is a visual communication consultant for non-governmental organizations, and provides lectures on this same topic at the London College of Communication, University of Westminster, and London School of Economics.

 
ALŽBĚTA JUNGROVÁ, Photographer, CZECH REPUBLIC

Alžběta Jungrová started photography at primary school and graduated from the Secondary Technical School of Graphic Arts in Hellichova Street. She then worked for the daily MF Dnes and for the editorial offices of the dailies Hospodářské and Lidové noviny. From 2000 to 2002 she lived and worked in the USA and London. She considers the genres of documentary and reportage to be the basis of her work, as she is interested in the lives and the fates of her contemporaries. She has travelled to various parts of the world to pursue her subjects and has often photographed in liminal situations. Among other things, she received an honourable mention from Czech Press Photo for her reportage on drugs at the Afghan-Pakistan border, a series of photographs of children working in a brick factory in Peshawar, Pakistan, and a UNHCR award for her photographs from a Burmese refugee camp in Bangladesh. She is currently a freelance photographer, represented by 4D Photo, one of the most prestigious agencies in the industry of commercial photography. She has worked on several documentary and time-lapse documentaries, and has been commissioned to create documentary photography, commercials, and portraits. She is involved in many charity projects. As far as her independent creative work is concerned, she now explores and visualizes the theme of human emotions and the search for boundaries within oneself, whether in classical photographic form, collage or video-projection. She also uses non-traditional materials such as textiles, glass, mirrors or plexiglass to print her photographs. She is one of the founding members of the group 400ASA.

 
MILAN JAROŠ, Photographer, CZECH REPUBLIC

Milan Jaroš (born 1979, Prague) is a Czech documentary and reportage photographer whose work is closely connected to both the domestic and international journalistic scene. He studied cinematography at FAMU (Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague), but soon fully devoted himself to photography.

Since 2008, he has been a staff photographer for the weekly magazine Respekt, for which he regularly documents events in the Czech Republic and abroad. His work is marked by versatility – he photographs both small and large-scale events across genres, capturing everything from everyday life to key political, cultural, and social moments.

In addition to his long-standing work for Respekt, he also collaborates with major international media outlets, most notably the Bloomberg agency, for which he covers economic and energy-related topics. His photographs have also appeared in The New York Times and other international publications.

Milan Jaroš has received numerous awards for his work. In the Czech Press Photo contest, he has been recognized multiple times, including receiving the Main Prize, the Audience Award, and the Grant of the City of Prague. In 2009, he was awarded second place in the UNICEF Award competition.

 
MARKO DJURICA, Documentary Photojournalist, Reuters, SERBIA

Marko Djurica is an internationally awarded documentary photographer for Reuters, based in Belgrade, Serbia. For more than two decades, he has traveled the world documenting major events, focusing primarily on armed conflict, migration, social inequality, and the increasing impact of environmental and climate crises.

His most significant assignments include the war in Afghanistan (2010), the conflict in Ukraine (2013–2025), political unrest and armed clashes in Israel (2012–2024), the liberation of Mosul in Iraq (2017), the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh (2017), the conflict in Syria (2018), the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong (2019), the COVID-19 pandemic in Serbia, and the 2025 conclave in the Vatican that led to the election of a new pope. In addition to covering global crises, he has photographed six Olympic Games, three FIFA World Cups, and three World Aquatics Championships, where he specializes in underwater photography. His work is recognized for its emotional depth, visual clarity, and tireless dedication to storytelling that reveals not only suffering, but also human resilience in the face of global challenges.

 
PETR JOSEK, photographer, CZECH REPUBLIC

Born in Brno, Czech Republic, he came to the profession of a photojournalist through various other jobs – from a camera assistant, film and television production jobs to a lab technician and finally a photojournalist at the Czech News Agency. Being a photojournalist for Reuters starting in 1990 he photographed dramatic events in Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, the Baltic Republics and Albania, both coups in Russia as well as the life in Iraq just after the overthrow of Saddam's dictatorial regime. Petr Josek is the recipient of numerous journalistic awards, including the Czech Press Photo 1997 Photograph of the Year of which he was the author. He is also a respected unofficial teacher of many young photojournalists. Between 2011 and 2019 he was the chairman of the jury of the Czech Press Photo competition.

 
DANA KYNDROVÁ, documentary photographer, CZECH REPUBLIC

Dana Kyndrová (1955, Prague) is a Czech documentary photographer known for her black-and-white humanist photography. She graduated in French and Russian from the Faculty of Arts, Charles University (1979), and worked as a language lecturer at the Czech Technical University and later at the Academy of Performing Arts. Since 1992, she has been a freelance photographer based in Prague. Her work has been exhibited widely in the Czech Republic and abroad, and she has published eight monographs, including Woman – Between Inhalation and Exhalation (2002), The Withdrawal of Soviet Troops from Czechoslovakia (2003), and Russians… Their Icons and Desires (2015). She has received numerous awards, among them seven Czech Press Photo prizes (1995–1999), the national Fujifilm Euro Press Photo Award (1998), and the Prague City Grant (2006). In addition to her photographic work, she is active as a curator and author of publications on Czech history and photography. In 2008, she was named Personality of Czech Photography by the Association of Czech Professional Photographers.