With Kryštof Doležal

Photo: Michal Ureš

A police couple on duty appears in the (paparazzi) photographer’s viewfinder. The roles are reversed and the observation takes on completely new angles. The „tabloid“ photographer discovers situations and moments that do not seem to belong to the official body or, on the contrary, are pleasing to the eye of the viewer, the citizen.

A couple of colleagues, officers on patrol, behaving in a human and spontaneous way, aroused unexpected astonishment and generally positive reactions in the surroundings. A one-day event, which was supposed to be just a collection of moments captured by a camera, became a performance. In borrowed uniforms, we spent the day on „duty“. The strength and power of the uniform became apparent almost immediately and achieved both expected and unexpected consequences. From discount ice cream, to free passage to the toilet without standing in line, to routine confrontations with colleagues operating in the field, to the embarrassed reactions of mothers spending time in the playground.
The sentences and reactions we overheard from random, unsuspecting performance participants during the day demonstrate the often incredible impact of the uniform.

The aim of the project is not to ridicule the police authority, but rather to show the possible human dimension that should be attached to the police authority.

The initial impulse for this project was based on an observed situation in which a police couple (patrol) was seen licking ice cream in the middle of a hot summer day in Prague, leaning against a service car at a well-known ice cream parlour. We decided to elaborate and reinterpret this situation.

What kind of policeman would you be?