What we learnt: 30 years after the Velvet Revolution

People and Walls – a double exposure assignment

November 17th 2019 – we took part of the March for the 30 year-anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, one of the most heartfelt event for every Czech and Slovak citizen.

The huge memorial started off at Wenceslas square, continued to Národni Trida and saw its culmination at Vyšehrad (reference photo below).

Deeply involved into a quiet yet festive emotion, we followed along, and thought to ourselves that observing the crowd in this evocative context would certainly trigger some photo opportunities unprecedented.

We decided to bridge this 30 year-gap from the moment that came down to history as one of the most peaceful revolutions ever made, to today.

30 years that saw Czech and Slovak republics as ever growing different countries, yet sharing a common past.

We walked until our feet hurts, stopping to take shots, learning from the boards, singing and smiling, feeling the same joy that those people felt when freedom was gained after four decades of fear and oppression.

At the end of the day, we edited our images, digitally to create double exposures and composed the following:

The results are hypnotic: we found ourselves displaced in time, not knowing exactly where or when we stood.

Our main goal was to display a huge mass of people flooding the streets, the power, the regime (any regime) creating and demanding another world.

We blinked an eye on the protests of Paris in May 1968 and the Situationists slogan “Sous les pavés, la plage”.

The decision was to keep the images desaturated to preserve continuity of the different overlapping scenes, playing with the blending options.

These images collected under the name “People and walls” were used to our “Good light, Prague” events, and submit them to the attendees for feedbacks.

Without further ado, we invite you to visit this stunning Youtube video, to celebrate 30 years of freedom! #dikyzemūžem