🇨🇿 Tento článek si můžete přečíst i v češtině: Svět přes objektiv Veroniky Souralové. Brzy otevírá imerzivní galerii v pražském Lihovaru
Her path to photography and culture was not a straightforward one. She graduated from the Faculty of Civil Engineering, started a family, and for a long time devoted herself primarily to her children, writing, and nature photography. Today she says that it was photography that gradually gave her her own world – a space where she could bring together everything that had fascinated her since childhood: nature, imagery, storytelling, and working with people.
“My relationship with nature began in childhood. My dad was a zoologist and was often away. On those rare occasions when he was home, he would read me two books in particular – Ferda the Ant and The Jungle Book – which I still know almost by heart. I was so jealous of Mowgli that he could live with animals, while I lived in an apartment building.”
Her love for animals and nature has stayed with her. Even as a child, she created her own little book, Animals at the Zoo – she wrote the text, drew the pictures, and even listed her favorite publisher at the end: Albatros. “Today, I’m actually fulfilling my childhood dreams.” Later, she began writing children’s books in which she shrunk her little heroes down to the size of insects. Together with her six-legged heroes, they then embarked on adventures in a world that was both magical and real. “The first book was called A Day in the Anthill. Then others followed – about bees, butterflies… I wrote most of them at our cottage, in a meadow, with a plain ballpoint pen on paper. Sometimes I felt like the story was coming on its own and I was just writing it down.”
Her fascination with the world of insects has carried over into her photographic work. “Perhaps I’m drawn to social insects because there isn’t as much ego involved. Everyone has their role, works for the greater good, and everything follows a certain order. It’s amazing to see how perfectly these tiny insect societies function – unlike our own human societies.”
From Photographer to Manager
A major turning point came when Veronika met Daniela Mrázková, the founder of the Czech Press Photo competition. She decided to take over the project. “Up until then, I’d mainly been writing, taking photos, and writing fairy tales. Suddenly, I was responsible for the entire project – the people, the partners, the finances, and the future of the competition. Overnight, I went from being a photographer and author to a manager. The beginning wasn’t easy. There were a lot of things I didn’t know how to do, and I had to learn them. There was a time when I was working practically all the time, and sometimes I wondered if I’d taken on too much. But that’s exactly when I started building my own professional world.”
The Czech Press Photo competition was joined by the Czech Nature Photo competition, which combines photography with the theme of nature conservation; the Czech Photo Center in Nové Butovice was established, as were the Fragment Gallery in Karlín and an extensive photographic archive. “Suddenly, I realized that it was no longer just about individual exhibitions or competitions. An entire ecosystem centered on photography, called Czech Photo, began to take shape.”
Family, however, remains an important part of her life. “Marcel and I have known each other since I was eighteen; we met in college. We had children soon after. My husband has spent his entire working life in real estate development; the Trigema company comes first for him. For a long time, I was the backbone of the family and raised the children. Today, I’m writing a book about it with the telling title: My Life with a Developer, with the subtitle: How to Live Beside a Strong Man and Not Lose Yourself.”
Yet her story isn’t about rebellion or escaping from someone else’s shadow. It’s about finding her own space, about support, partnership, and the fact that two successful people can stand side by side without one having to diminish the other. Although their professional worlds have long developed separately, in recent years they have become increasingly interconnected through architecture and art. This is most evident at Lihovar in Prague.
A Photograph You Can Step Into
At the Lihovar complex in Smíchov, Veronika is currently preparing a new project called Czech Photo – an immersive gallery. She doesn’t want to create just another traditional gallery with framed photographs on the wall. The first project will transport visitors to an African rainforest. She draws inspiration from her own photographic journey to Cameroon among the Baka Pygmy tribe.
“I want to draw visitors into a story for a moment – where the smoke from a fire meets the sun’s rays piercing through the green twilight, where the god Jengi dances, and where time flows differently than on cell phone screens. Such photographs pose a fundamental question: What have we lost on the path to modern civilization – and what of it can we still rediscover?”
Travel is her lifelong passion. One of her most recent expeditions took her back to Africa, where she participated in the Congo Art Expedition alongside other artists. Nine artists set out together into the jungle and savanna. “We went on long hikes, and together we mapped poaching and the protection of endangered animal species. Each artist then interpreted, in their own way, their perception of the rainforest and the life within it, the vulnerability of nature, and the complex search for balance between humans and the wilderness. The paintings and photographs created during this journey are now being given a new lease on life. In September, an auction will take place on Artslimit, the proceeds of which will help support nature conservation.”
What can photography change?
The question “What can I actually change through photography?” comes up more and more often in her work. She seeks the answer once again where her story began – in nature. “I can’t stop climate change or clean up the oceans. But I can photograph nature, tell stories about it, turn insects and animals into heroes, and show their world to both children and adults. If a photograph can inspire someone to look at the world around them differently, I’m satisfied. If, thanks to photography, someone begins to appreciate nature more, becomes more aware of it, and develops greater respect for it, then my work has meaning. I consider nature conservation to be my life’s mission.”
This is where all her worlds converge – children’s books, macro photography, Czech Press Photo, Czech Nature Photo, galleries, and trips to the rainforests.
Photography has given her her own world. Today, she’s opening it up to others as well.
We’ll take a closer look at the multifaceted photographer Veronika Souralová in our English-language MagicMag, which will be published in October of this year.
