10 photos that defined Czechia in 2025: From politics to culture

2025 was a year of endings and reckonings, now presented in stark clarity through the lens of Czech Press Photo. The competition's winning images tell the story of a nation in transition: coal-dusted miners emerging from the ČSM-Sever mine as 250 years of extraction draws to a close, red-capped voters of all ages rallying behind Andrej Babiš's populist resurgence, a toxic benzene cloud billowing from a derailed train, and a prima ballerina preparing for her final bow. Photographer Lukas Kaboň's haunting portrait of miners claimed the top prize.

Founded in 1995, Czech Press Photo remains the country's premier annual competition for documentary and news photography, showcasing the most compelling images published in Czech media over the past year. The exhibition runs at Prague's National Museum from May 11 to November 30.

Prague photographer Lukas Kabon of Denik won the main prize at Czech Press Photo 2025 for a photo capturing miners at the CSM-Sever mine in Stonava, north Moravia, ahead of its closure later this month.

'Hot hell, ski nirvana: Between lava and powder' by Tomáš Binter captures the audacious feat of Czech alpinist Matěj Bernát, who set a speed record climbing Mount Etna from sea level to its 3,500-meter summit in February—then skied straight toward the active lava flows the following day.

'Czech-Slovak border – Separately together' by Libor Fojtík explores Czechia and Slovakia's intertwined past, thirty years after their peaceful separation. Working within a 50-kilometer zone spanning both Moravia and Slovakia since 2021, Fojtík captures the everyday absurdities and enduring connections of border life.

'Andrej Babiš in the election campaign' by Petr Topič captures the populist energy that propelled the former prime minister and his ANO movement to parliamentary victory in 2025. The image shows young supporters in red "Silné Česko" (Strong Czechia) caps posing for selfies during Babiš's months-long campaign tour across the country.

'Pokrova Lviv – First Ukrainian Amputee Football Team – The Power of Those Who Remain Standing' by Ray Baseley captures a moment of extraordinary resilience on the pitch. The Pokrova AMP Lviv team, composed entirely of Ukrainian veterans who lost limbs in the war with Russia, chose to remain standing—not in retreat, but in defiance, playing football on crutches rather than fading into civilian seclusion.

'Farewell to the career of Czech prima ballerina Nikola Márová' by Martin Divisek captures an intimate moment of preparation before the final curtain. Photographed backstage in December 2024 as she readied herself to dance Blanche in John Neumaier's A Streetcar Named Desire at Prague's Estates Theatre, Márová, one of Czech ballet's most luminous figures bid farewell to her solo career with characteristic grace.

The last lions in Bohemia by Zdeněk Dvořák shows a tender moment between keeper and cub at the Humberto circus. Following a 2022 ban on carnivore breeding in Czechia (with exceptions only for zoos and conservation programs), these lion cubs born to breeder Hynek Navrátil Jr. became the last legal circus lions in the country.

'Miners' work at the ČSM-Sever mine (OKD)/ by Lukas Kaboň documents the twilight of an industrial identity that has defined Czechia for over two centuries. The ČSM-Sever mine in the Karviná region stands as the last hard coal mine in the Czech Republic, its dust-covered workers carrying forward a tradition deeply embedded in the Moravian-Silesian consciousness since the late 18th century. Yet as these miners emerge from their shifts, they do so knowing that this more than 200-year story is scheduled to end at the beginning of 2026.

'Black breath of benzene' by Petr Andráško captures the apocalyptic scene of a train derailment in Hustopeče nad Bečvou that became one of 2025's most harrowing environmental disasters. When a derailed train carrying benzene ignited, 400 tons of the toxic substance leaked into the countryside, triggering a seven-month emergency response as firefighters battled not just towering flames and acrid smoke, but an invisible chemical poison

'Scientists take measurements on the melting Rhône glacier in Switzerland' by Sean Gallup presents a haunting topography of climate crisis written in ice. The Rhône Glacier, like its Alpine neighbors, has been losing total ice mass every year since 2006, melting at a record pace as the European Alps warm at twice the global average.