The Applied Photography Studio at FUD UJEP – Photosynthesis

#2 min Nikola Ivanov, Veronika Čechmánková

7. 9. 2026

Photo: Jakub Franta a Karolína Grohová

Botanical gardens today play a critical role in protecting plant species on the brink of extinction. Many of these plants are no longer able to reproduce naturally under the increasingly difficult conditions of contemporary landscapes; their natural habitats are steadily disappearing, and their survival has become directly dependent on human intervention. A comprehensive conservation program run by the Union of Botanical Gardens of the Czech Republic and focused on protecting native plant genetic resources served as the thematic framework for a semester project by students of the Applied Photography Studio at FUD UJEP.

The resulting outdoor exhibition, situated in the distinctive setting of the refugium at the Botanic Garden of the Faculty of Science, Charles University in Albertov, presents projects created by pairs of students. During the summer semester, each pair focused on a particular area of activity or environment associated with one of the partner botanical institutions in Prague, Liberec, Teplice, Třeboň, and Průhonice. The exhibition thus explores the dialogue between rigorous scientific research and open-ended artistic interpretation.

The artists employed a range of visual strategies. The exhibition features fading Polaroids addressing the transience of plant life cycles, fictional plant models placed in the landscape, and underwater photographs that reverse the perspective, looking from the depths of Třeboň’s reservoirs toward the human acts of care that sustain them. The human element also runs through a series of stylized portraits of botanical garden staff wearing metaphorical costumes. Other projects trace the reintroduction of the critically endangered Bohemian butterwort, adopt the format of activist posters advocating for the preservation of heritage plant varieties, or bring together plants targeted for conservation in a final layered collage. The exhibition was preceded by intensive theoretical preparation, field trips, and a plein-air workshop focused on the technique of natural photograms.

Nikola Ivanov and Veronika Čechmánková
Heads of the Applied Photography Studio, Faculty of Art and Design, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem

Bio

The Applied Photography studio at FUD UJEP was founded in 2006. Until 2020, it was led by Miroslav Vojtěchovský and Marian Beneš. It was subsequently taken over by J. Thýn and V. Kopecký, and since 2024, the studio has been headed by the duo of Nikola Ivanov and Veronika Čechmánková. We do not set boundaries between fine art and applied photography, nor between creativity and craft. We understand photography from a broad perspective, with overlaps into video and installation, allowing each student to choose their own approach. We support a diversity of approaches and the desire to experiment. The specific curriculum and assignments emerge from collective debate and respond to key issues of the present day.

Info

Nikola Ivanov

is an intermedia artist whose works focus on time, memory, biopolitics and sleep. He has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the Czech Republic and is the editor of the anthology Odpočinek v neklidu. He is currently studying a PhD. programme at Prague’s UMPRUM; his artistic research focuses on the relationship between modernity and the colonization of nighttime.

Veronika Čechmánková

is a Czech photographer and mixed-media artist based in Prague. She focuses primarily on the transformation of symbols and traditions over time, and their possible meanings in the present. Taking pieces of visual and cultural history, she examines their validity and possibilities in a contemporary context. Čechmánková studied at the Studio of Photography and New Media at FAMU – Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Czechia. Her work has been exhibited in a range of institutions, including the Center for Contemporary Art FUTURA, Prague; Karlín Studios, Prague; Studio Vortex, Arles; and the BF Artist Film Festival, London.

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