Generation Naplavka

Naplavka is the name given to the Prague cobblestoned boardwalk along the Vltava river banks. If in the history of Prague, until the industrial revolution, this place bustled with activity, Naplavka has been completely deserted during the last seven decades. However, a seed of craziness and freedom recently started to germinate among these cobblestones, particularly in between Jiráskův most (Jirásek Bridge) and Železniční most (railway bridge). This site came to life again few years ago when a bike repair stand and couple of beer points temporarily opened during one summer. Quickly, beer and food stands, floating or grounded, flourished together with cultural and musical events to attract a continuously growing number of people year after year.

Naplavka has become the summer meeting point of a new generation of Prague residents coming from different sociocultural backgrounds but with the same identity and the same bid for liberty. Going to Naplavka after work to meet with friends around a beer in a festive and open-minded spirit has become the new Prague “Art de vivre” that people like to share among them as well as through social medias. Naplavka is representative of the rupture between the communist heritage and the emancipation of a new generation eager to free itself from this recent past. These explosions of colors and thirst for freedom are most likely due to the fact that for a long time they have been deprived of them. In the communist time, censorship and repression limited exchanges and isolated minds in a deleterious climate, reason why people gathered mainly in closed places. Generation Naplavka is colorful, curious, tolerant, hedonist but most importantly free. And nobody can rise up against this. Naplavka represents a rainbow of joy, light-heartedness, artistic vibes and laid-back atmosphere that color the city during the few warm months before diving into the greyness of winter.

Prague, Czech Republic

This photographic series was made over the period (2013-2017) with a Leica M6 and Kodak Portra 160 films.