PHOTOGRAPHIC BACKGROUND
Vaclav started underwater photography during his university studies when he fell in love with a sport called freediving. Vaclav cooperated with the first school of freediving in the Czech Republic, and therefore had an opportunity to see and photograph many beautiful spots of the Mediterranean and Red sea.
After graduating university in Prague, he moved to London to study English. But when seeing the richness of Britain´s landscape, spreading from Cornwall´s stunning cliffs to Scotland´s Highlands with its mystique atmosphere, he fell in love with landscape photography.
Many years have passed since then, during which Vaclav organized a lot of mountaineering and underwater photography expeditions to Itali, Scotland, Norway, Egypt, Maldives, and other countries, cooperated with the best freedivers in the world and top-class manufacturers of freediving and mountaineering equipment, contributed to many magazines and photography web sites, sold his images in limited edition all over the world, but most importantly captured beauty of mountains and underwater world.
UNIQUENESS OF UW PHOTOGRAPHY ON A SINGLE BREATH
All Vaclav´s underwater photographs are taken during diving on a single breath. Compared to other underwater photographers he is not a scuba diver and never use any scuba gear.
To dive deep a freediver has to completely relax his mind, slow down his heart rate, apply advanced equalization techniques and switch himself into a diving mode in which time passes in a different way. To focus on camera settings, light, and composition under these circumstances becomes the real challenge.
To freedive into deep waters of oceans with big camera housing, flashguns, arms, and cables, Vaclav has to keep himself in the good shape, committed to different types of fitness and freediving trainings all year round. Currently Vaclav dives on a single breath up to 80 metres deep.
GENUINENESS OF PHOTOGRAPHS
There is a frequent misconception among the public that photographs, like Vaclav´s, are somehow "created" in Photoshop. This is an outcome of latest development of photo-editing tools, which enable certain graphic artists (presenting themselves as "photographers") to manipulate images to an unrealistic but striking degree, which genuine photographs will struggle to achieve.To distinquish the work of genuine photographers from manipulations of graphic artists becomes impossible for most viewers.
Vaclav´s intention is to capture unique but genuine moments. He does not use coloured filters, does not combine different photos in Photoshop, and does not add or delete subjects to his photographs.
If you see a colorful sunrise in his photo, it is because he had spent countless mornings waiting for the moment when all the elements of light, composition and colour came together to make a perfect image.
ACHIEVEMENTS AND VALUES
During the stay in London Vaclav entered his first international photo competition and to his surprise won the first prize. Since that, he has won many photography awards on the international scale, including those supported by Wetpixel, Divephotoguide, or National Geographic.
Nonetheless this does not mean much to him these days, as his biggest satisfaction comes from returning to the oceans, mountains and competing with no one but himself.
