Marian Chytka

Czech Republic

Photo: Marian Chytka

Marian is a sports photographer, specialised in motorsports. Even though he has a master degree of law he has chosen photography to be his main and only job. He does not really work in his house country and you would normally meet him somewhere else around the world. He has visited more than 65+ countries over last couple of years, being out from the Czech rep for 8 months a year.

It all stared back in 2007 when he got his first DSLR camera as a Christmas present so he could take photos of his older brother racing. At the beginning the passion was not really there, but it got all changed in 2010 when he went to Rally Dakar for the first time and then spent the whole summer at one of the most photogenic place in the world - Iceland. Since that he has been to more than 200+ international motorsport including 12 Rally Dakar, several F1 races, Moto GP events, shooting for the biggest brands in the industry - Monster Energy, Redbull, Toyota, Audi, Total, KTM, Honda, Mini, etc, working with the athletes such as Lewis Hamilton, Valentino Rossi, Ken Block, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, Sebastien Loeb and many many others.

He has created his own agency having other photographers and videographers working with him and creating content for his brand. Apart from the motorsport events he did several advertisement shoots for international brands mostly connected to cars' and bikes’ industry.

Q&A

How did you start with photo/video?
Motorsport has been always in our family. I got the first camera for Christmas to take photos of my brother racing. At first, I was not so much into it, but everything got changed when I went for the first time to Rally Dakar in 2010.

How would you describe your style?
I always say it is a mix of advertisement and reportage. I always try to showcase the environment where the motorsport event is happening. Not only taking photos where the car and bike covers most of the photo but trying to use the landscape and surroundings to make the action even more interesting.

What inspires you?
Anything and everything. Traveling, other photographers/videographers, when I watch a movie, I try to think about how they lighted up the scene, etc. Always look around and suddenly it comes. The best ideas usually come either when I am jogging or when I am in a bed like half asleep.

What is your dream shoot or project?
Dakar has always been my dream project, so I am happy I have done already 12 edition and hopefully gonna continue like that. Currently thinking a bit more about F1 and about more advertisement shoots.

What is your best advice to others that want to develop as photographers?
Shoot, shoot and shoot. Even though it might sound like a cliche it is true. You can obviously study, go to workshops, watching tutorials, etc., but if you do not practice it won’t get you anywhere.