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He and his work received support and acknowledgment from his friend the French photographer [[Henri Cartier-Bresson]]. He was also supported by the Czech [[art history|art historian]] [[Anna Farova]].<ref name=rp>{{cite news|first=Jan|last=Richter|title=Art historian Anna Fárová dies at 81 |url=http://www.radio.cz/en/article/125554 |work=[[Radio Prague]]|publisher=|date=2010-03-02 |accessdate=2010-03-02}}</ref>
He and his work received support and acknowledgment from his friend the French photographer [[Henri Cartier-Bresson]]. He was also supported by the Czech [[art history|art historian]] [[Anna Farova]].<ref name=rp>{{cite news|first=Jan|last=Richter|title=Art historian Anna Fárová dies at 81 |url=http://www.radio.cz/en/article/125554 |work=[[Radio Prague]]|publisher=|date=2010-03-02 |accessdate=2010-03-02}}</ref>


In 1987, Koudelka became a French citizen, and was able to return to Czechoslovakia for the first time, in 1990. He then produced ''Black Triangle'', documenting the wasted landscape in the Podkrusnohorí region, the western tip of the [[Black Triangle (region)|Black Triangle's]] foothills of the Ore Mountains, located between Germany and the Czech Republic.
In 1987, Koudelka became a French citizen, and was able to return to Czechoslovakia for the first time, in 1990. He then produced ''Black Triangle'', documenting the wasted landscape in the Podkrušnohoří region, the western tip of the [[Black Triangle (region)|Black Triangle's]] foothills of the Ore Mountains, located between Germany and the Czech Republic.


Koudelka resides in France and Prague and is continuing his work documenting the European landscape. He has two daughters and a son.
Koudelka resides in France and Prague and is continuing his work documenting the European landscape. He has two daughters and a son.

Revision as of 19:28, 8 September 2014

Josef Koudelka
Josef Koudelka photographed in Collesano, Sicily (easter 1987)
Born (1938-01-10) 10 January 1938 (age 86)
Boskovice, Czechoslovakia
NationalityCzech
CitizenshipFrench
OccupationPhotographer
Known forStreet photography

Josef Koudelka (born January 10, 1938) is a Czech photographer.

Biography

Koudelka was born in 1938 in Boskovice, Moravia. He began photographing his family and the surroundings with a 6 x 6 Bakelite camera. He studied at the Czech Technical University in Prague (CVUT) between 1956 and 1961, receiving a Degree in Engineering in 1961. He staged his first photographic exhibition the same year. Later he worked as an aeronautical engineer in Prague and Bratislava.

He began taking commissions from theatre magazines, and regularly photographed stage productions at Prague's Theatre Behind the Gate on a Rolleiflex camera. In 1967, Koudelka decided to give up his career in engineering for full-time work as a photographer.

He had returned from a project photographing gypsies in Romania just two days before the Soviet invasion, in August 1968. He witnessed and recorded the military forces of the Warsaw Pact as they invaded Prague and crushed the Czech reforms. Koudelka's negatives were smuggled out of Prague into the hands of the Magnum agency, and published anonymously in The Sunday Times Magazine under the initials P. P. (Prague Photographer) for fear of reprisal to him and his family.

His pictures of the events became dramatic international symbols. In 1969 the "anonymous Czech photographer" was awarded the Overseas Press Club's Robert Capa Gold Medal for photographs requiring exceptional courage.

With Magnum to recommend him to the British authorities, Koudelka applied for a three-month working visa and fled to England in 1970, where he applied for political asylum and stayed for more than a decade. In 1971 he joined Magnum Photos. A nomad at heart, he continued to wander around Europe with his camera and little else.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Koudelka sustained his work through numerous grants and awards, and continued to exhibit and publish major projects like Gypsies (1975) and Exiles (1988). Since 1986, he has worked with a panoramic camera and issued a compilation of these photographs in his book Chaos in 1999. Koudelka has had more than a dozen books of his work published, including most recently in 2006 the retrospective volume Koudelka.

Koudelka has won awards such as the Prix Nadar (1978), a Grand Prix National de la Photographie (1989), a Grand Prix Cartier-Bresson (1991), and the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography (1992). Significant exhibitions of his work have been held at the Museum of Modern Art and the International Center of Photography, New York; the Hayward Gallery, London; the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art, Amsterdam; and the Palais de Tokyo, Paris.

He and his work received support and acknowledgment from his friend the French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. He was also supported by the Czech art historian Anna Farova.[1]

In 1987, Koudelka became a French citizen, and was able to return to Czechoslovakia for the first time, in 1990. He then produced Black Triangle, documenting the wasted landscape in the Podkrušnohoří region, the western tip of the Black Triangle's foothills of the Ore Mountains, located between Germany and the Czech Republic.

Koudelka resides in France and Prague and is continuing his work documenting the European landscape. He has two daughters and a son.

Work

Koudelka's early work significantly shaped his later photography, and its emphasis on social and cultural rituals as well as death. He soon moved on to a more personal, in depth photographic study of the Gypsies of Slovakia, and later Romania. This work was exhibited in Prague in 1967. Throughout his career, Koudelka has been praised for his ability to capture the presence of the human spirit amidst dark landscapes. Desolation, waste, departure, despair and alienation are common themes in his work. His characters sometimes seem to come out of fairytales. Still, some see hope within his work — the endurance of human endeavor, in spite of its fragility. His later work focuses on the landscape removed of human subjects.

His most recent book Wall: Israeli and Palestinian Landscapes was published by Aperture Foundation in 2013.[2] This book is composed of panoramic landscapes that he made between 2008 and 2012, as his project for the photography collective This Place, organized by photographer Frédéric Brenner.[3]

Quotes

"I don't pretend to be an intellectual or a philosopher. I just look."[4]

"When I photograph, I do not think much. If you looked at my contacts you would ask yourself: "What is this guy doing?" But I keep working with my contacts and with my prints, I look at them all the time. I believe that the result of this work stays in me and at the moment of photographing it comes out, without my thinking of it."[4]

"I am not interested in repetition. I don't want to reach the point from where I wouldn't know how to go further. It's good to set limits for oneself, but there comes a moment when we must destroy what we have constructed."[4]

Awards

Exhibitions

  • 1961 – Divadlo Semafor, Prague, Czechoslovakia
  • 1967 – Josef Koudela: Cikáni – 1961-1966, Divadlo za branou, Prague, Czechoslovakia
  • 1968 – Josef Koudela: Divadelni fotografie – 1965-1968, Divadlo za branou, Prague, Czechoslovakia
  • 1975 – Josef Koudelka, Museum of Modern Art, New York, US
  • 1977 – Gitans: la fin du voyage
    • Galerie Delpire, Paris
    • Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland; The Tel-Aviv Museum, Israel
    • Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
  • 1984 – Josef Koudelka, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
  • 1988/89 – Josef Koudelka
    • Centre National de la Photographie, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
    • International Center of Photography, New York, US
    • Akademie der Künste, Berlin
    • Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
    • IVAM, Valencia, Spain
  • 1989 – Josef Koudelka, Mission Transmanche, galerie de l'ancienne poste, Calais, France
  • 1990 – Josef Koudelka z Fotografického dila 1958-1990, Umeleckoprumyslové museum, Prague, Czechoslovakia
  • 1994 – Cerny trojuhelnik - Podkrusnohori : Fotografie 1990–1994 (Black Triangle), Salmovsky Palac, Prague, Czech Republic
  • 1995/97 - Periplanissis: following Ulysses' Gaze
    • Mylos, Thessaloniki, Greece
    • Zappeion, Athens, Greece
    • Centre culturel Una Volta, Bastia, France
    • ville de Rodez, France
    • Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan
    • Museo di Storia della Fotografia, Fratelli Alinari, Firenze, Italy
  • 1998 – Reconnaissance: Wales, National Museums and Galleries of Wales, Cardiff, UK
  • 1999/2001 - Chaos
    • Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma, Italy
    • Cantieri Culturali della Zisa, Palermo, Italy
    • Palazzo Marino alla Scala, Milano Italy
    • The Snellman Hall, Helsinki, Finland
    • sala de exposiciones de Plaza de España, Madrid, Spain
  • 2002 - Josef Koudelka: Fotograf, National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
  • 2002/03 - Rétrospective
    • Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles, France
    • Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico
    • Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Monterrey, Mexico
  • 2003 – Teatro del Tempo, Mercati di Traiano, Roma, Italy
  • 2006 - Les Rencontres d'Arles festival, France: exhibition and laureate of the Discovery Award
  • 2008
    • Screening at Théâtre Antique, Arles, for the Rencontres d'Arles festival, France
    • Prague 1968, Aperture Gallery, NYC
    • Koudelka, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece
    • Josef Koudelka, Pera Museum, İstanbul, Turkey
    • Invaze (Invasion) Old Town Hall, Prague, Czech Republic
  • 2010 - Invasion Prague 68, Photo Cube Market Square, Guernsey[6]
  • 2012 - Zingari, Fondazione Forma, Milano
  • 2013 - Vestiges 1991-2012, Centre de la Vieille Charité, Marseilles, France[7]
  • 2013/2014 - Josef Koudelka Retrospective, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo [8]

Bibliography

  • Diskutujeme o moralce dneska, Nakladatelstvi Politické Literatury, Czechoslovakia, 1965
  • Kral Ubu: Rozbor inscenace Divadla Na Zabradli v Praze (with Alfred Jarry), Divadelni Ustav, Czechoslovakia, 1966
  • Rozbor insenace Divadla Na zabradli v Praze, 1966
  • Josef Koudelka, 1968
  • Gitans : la fin du voyage, Delpire, France, France: Delpire, ASIN B0014M0TV8; Gypsies, US: Aperture, ISBN 978-0-912334-74-5, 1975
  • Josef Koudelka: I Grandi Fotografi, Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri, Italy, 1982
  • Josef Koudelka Photo Poche, Centre National de la Photographie, France, 1984
  • Josef Koudelka. Photographs by Josef Koudelka. Introduction by Bernard Cuau. Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, 1984
  • Exiles, Centre National de la Photographie, France; Delpire éditeur, France (Exiles), Aperture, US; Thames & Hudson, UK, 1988, ISBN 978-0-500-54208-8
  • Josef Koudelka, Mission Photographique Transmanche, France: Editions de la Différence, 1989
  • Animaux, Trois Cailloux/maison de la Culture d'Amiens, France, 1990
  • Prague 1968, France: Centre National de la Photographie, 1990
  • Josef Koudelka: Fotografie Divadlo za branou 1965-1970, Divadlo za Branou II, Czech Republic, 1993
  • Josef Koudelka. Photographs by Josef Koudelka, Hasselblad Center, 1993
  • Cerný Trojuhelník - Podkrušnohorí : Fotografie 1990-1994 (The Black Triangle: The Foothills of the Ore Mountain) Vesmir, Czech Republic, 1994
  • Photopoche: Josef Koudleka France: Cnp, 1997, ISBN 978-2-09-754114-7
  • Reconnaissance Wales, Cardiff, UK: Fotogallery/ National Museums and Galleries of Wales, 1998, ISBN 978-1-872771-45-8
  • Chaos, France: Nathan/Delpire; UK: Phaidon Press; Italy: Federico Motta Editore, 1999, ISBN 978-0-7148-4594-4
  • Lime Stone, France: La Martinière, 2001
  • Josef Koudelka, Czech Republic: Torst, 2002, ISBN 978-80-7215-166-0
  • Théâtre du Temps, France: Actes Sud, ISBN 978-2-7427-4435-0; (Teatro del Tempo), Italy: Peliti Associati; Greece: Apeiron, 2003
  • L'épreuve totalitaire (essay by Jean-Pierre Montier), Delpire, France, 2004
  • Koudelka: Camargue, France: Actes Sud, 2006, ISBN 978-2-7427-6174-6
  • Koudelka, France: Delpire; Italy: Contrasto; US: Aperture; UK: Thames & Hudson; Germany: Braus; Spain: Lunwerg; Czech Republic: Fototorst, 2006
  • Joseph Koudelka Photofile, Thames & Hudson, 2007, ISBN 978-0-500-41083-7
  • Invasion 68: Prague US: Aperture Foundation, ISBN 978-1-59711-068-6; France: Editions Tana, ISBN 978-2-84567-438-7, 2008,
  • Koudelka Piedmont Contrasto, 2010, ISBN 978-88-6965-217-2
  • Lime, 2012, France: Xavier Barral Eds, ISBN 978-2-9151-7385-7
  • Wall, 2013, Aperture Foundation, ISBN 978-1-5971-1241-3.

Grants and Awards

  • British Arts Council grant (1976)
  • The Prix Nadar (1978)
  • The United States National Endowment for the Arts Photography Grant (1980),
  • The Grand Prix National de la Photographie (1989)
  • The Grand Prix Cartier-Bresson (1991)

See also

References

  1. ^ Richter, Jan (2010-03-02). "Art historian Anna Fárová dies at 81". Radio Prague. Retrieved 2010-03-02.
  2. ^ "Wall, Josef Koudelka". Aperture Foundation. Aperture. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  3. ^ Estrin, James. "Josef Koudelka: Formed by the World". The New York Times. The New York Times. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  4. ^ a b c Horvat, Frank. "Horvatland - Entre Vues - Joseph Koudelka". Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  5. ^ Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Award Accessed 13 August 2012
  6. ^ http://www.guernseyphotographyfestival.com/page/josef-koudelka Exhibition information
  7. ^ http://www.mp2013.fr/vestiges-1991-2012-josef-koudelka/
  8. ^ http://www.momat.go.jp/english/artmuseum/koudelka2013/index.html

External links

Interviews

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