Photo Series: Prague – von Pandemonium to Pandemic

About the project: Since the early 1990s Prague has emerged from almost half a century of relative isolation behind the Iron Curtain and a tourist influx began. One of Bjorns recent projects included setting up a tripod in popular tourist spots and letting the long exposure on his camera take in the ebb and flow of the tourist masses, showing Prague as a moving, flowing sea of people coming to admire its famous historical sites. 

One year and the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic later, Prague is deserted. Tourists are nowhere to be seen and for the first time in decades, the Czech capital is empty, briefly returning to a reality that preceded the arrival of mass tourism. Björn returned to the same locations where a year earlier he had jostled for space to set up his camera and photographed the eerily deserted streets and tourist sights.

In 2018, around 9 million people visited Prague – that’s 9 tourists for every resident. In 2020, under the shadow of the global pandemic, the “City of a hundred spires” has briefly returned to a former state, a short breather before the arrival of the next cohort of tourists.

To see Bjorn’s work please visit the Prague – von Pandemonium to Pandemic page.