Josef Koudelka
Encyclopedia
Josef Koudelka is a Czech
photographer.
, Moravia
, town of about 10,000 inhabitants. He began photographing his family and the surroundings with a 6 x 6 Bakelite camera. In 1961, he earned a degree from the Czech Technical University in Prague
(CVUT), staging 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 an old 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, he applied for a three-month working visa and fled to England
in 1970, where he applied for political asylum, in 1971 joined Magnum Photos
and stayed for more than a decade. 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, his first book) and Exiles (1988, his second). 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.
He has won significant 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 much support and acknowledgment from the famous French photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson
, his friend. He was also supported by, among many others, the Czech art historian
Anna Farova
.
In 1987 he became a French citizen, and was able to return to Czechoslovakia for the first time in 1991. He then produced Black Triangle, documenting his country's wasted landscape.
Koudelka resides in France and Prague and is continuing his work documenting the European landscape. He has two daughters and a young son, each from a different country: France, England and Italy.
, 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.
Articles
Czech people
Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...
photographer.
Biography
Josef Koudelka was born in 1938 in BoskoviceBoskovice
Boskovice is a town in the Czech Republic.-Location:The town is situated in the Drahanská Highlands, about 30–40 km to the north of Brno, the most important city of Moravia.-History:...
, Moravia
Moravia
Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
, town of about 10,000 inhabitants. He began photographing his family and the surroundings with a 6 x 6 Bakelite camera. In 1961, he earned a degree from the Czech Technical University in Prague
Czech Technical University in Prague
Czech Technical University in Prague is one of the largest universities in the Czech Republic, and the oldest institute of technology in Central Europe....
(CVUT), staging his first photographic exhibition the same year. Later he worked as an aeronautical engineer in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
and Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
.
He began taking commissions from theatre magazines, and regularly photographed stage productions at Prague's Theatre Behind the Gate on an old Rolleiflex
Rolleiflex
Rolleiflex is the name of a long-running and diverse line of high-end cameras originally made by the German company Franke & Heidecke, and later Rollei-Werk. The "Rolleiflex" name is most commonly used to refer to Rollei's premier line of medium format twin lens reflex cameras...
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
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
just two days before the Soviet invasion, in August 1968. He witnessed and recorded the military forces of the Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
as they invaded Prague and crushed the Czech reforms. Koudelka's negatives were smuggled out of Prague into the hands of the Magnum
Magnum Photos
Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices located in New York, Paris, London and Tokyo...
agency, and published anonymously in The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *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
Overseas Press Club
The Overseas Press Club of America was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member...
's Robert Capa Gold Medal
Robert Capa Gold Medal
The Robert Capa Gold Medal is an award for "best published photographic reporting from abroad requiring exceptional courage and enterprise". It is awarded annually by the Overseas Press Club of America . It was created in honor of the war photographer Robert Capa...
for photographs requiring exceptional courage.
With Magnum to recommend him to the British authorities, he applied for a three-month working visa and fled to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in 1970, where he applied for political asylum, in 1971 joined Magnum Photos
Magnum Photos
Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices located in New York, Paris, London and Tokyo...
and stayed for more than a decade. 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, his first book) and Exiles (1988, his second). 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.
He has won significant awards such as the Prix Nadar
Prix Nadar
The Prix Nadar is an annual prize awarded for a photography book edited in France. The prize was created in 1955 and is awarded by a jury of photojournalists and publishing experts....
(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
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
and the International Center of Photography
International Center of Photography
The International Center of Photography is a photography museum, school, and research center in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
, New York; the Hayward Gallery
Hayward Gallery
The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre, part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames, in central London, England. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings and also the Royal National Theatre and British Film Institute...
, London; the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art, Amsterdam; and the Palais de Tokyo
Palais de Tokyo
The Palais de Tokyo is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, near the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs the City of Paris and hosts the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris...
, Paris.
He and his work received much support and acknowledgment from the famous French photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism. He was an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography...
, his friend. He was also supported by, among many others, the Czech art historian
Art history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
Anna Farova
Anna Fárová
Anna Fárová was a Czech art historian who specialized and catalogued Czech and Czechoslovakian photographers, including Frantisek Drtikol and Josef Sudek. She was one of the pioneers of writing on history of photography...
.
In 1987 he became a French citizen, and was able to return to Czechoslovakia for the first time in 1991. He then produced Black Triangle, documenting his country's wasted landscape.
Koudelka resides in France and Prague and is continuing his work documenting the European landscape. He has two daughters and a young son, each from a different country: France, England and Italy.
Work
His 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 SlovakiaSlovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, and later Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. 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.
Education
Koudelka received a Degree in Engineering from the Technical University of Prague, Czechoslovakia, during 1956-61.Awards
- 2004 - Cornell Capa Infinity Award, International Center of PhotographyInternational Center of PhotographyThe International Center of Photography is a photography museum, school, and research center in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
, US - 1992 - Erna and Victor Hasselblad Foundation Photography Prize, Sweden
- 1991 - Grand Prix Henri Cartier-Bresson, France
- 1987 - Grand Prix National de la Photographie, French Ministry of Culture, France
- 1980 - National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the ArtsThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Council, US - 1978 - Prix Nadar, France
- 1976 - British Arts Council Grant to cover life in the British Isles, UK
- 1973 - British Arts Council Grant to cover Gypsy life in Britain, UK
- 1972 - British Arts Council Grant to cover Kendal and Southend, UK
- 1969 - Robert Capa Gold Medal Award, National Press Photographers AssociationNational Press Photographers AssociationNPPA is the acronym for the National Press Photographers Association, founded in 1947. The organization is based in Durham, North Carolina and its mostly made up of still photographers, television videographers, editors, and students in the journalism field...
, US - 1967 - Award by Union of Czechoslovakian Artists, Czechoslovakia
Exhibitions
- 2010 - Invasion Prague 68, Photo Cube Market Square, Guernsey Exhibition information
- 2008 - Screening at Théâtre Antique, Arles, for the Rencontres d'Arles festival, France.
- 2008 - Prague 1968, Aperture Gallery, NYC,NY
- 2008 - Koudelka, Benaki MuseumBenaki MuseumThe Benaki Museum, established and endowed in 1930 by Antonis Benakis in memory of his father Emmanuel Benakis, is housed in the Benakis family mansion in downtown Athens, Greece...
, Athens, GR - 2008 - Invaze (Invasion) Old Town Hall, Prague, CZ
- 2006 - Les Rencontres d'Arles festival, France: exhibition and laureate to the Discovery Award.
- 2003 – Teatro del Tempo, Mercati di TraianoTrajan's MarketTrajan's Market is a large complex of ruins in the city of Rome, Italy, located on the Via dei Fori Imperiali, at the opposite end to the Colosseum...
, Roma, Italy - 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 - 2002 Josef Koudelka : Fotograf, National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
- 1999/01 – 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 EspañaPlaza de España (Madrid)Plaza de España is a large square, and popular tourist destination, located in central Madrid, Spain, at the western end of the Gran Vía. It features a monument to Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, and is bordered by two of Madrid's most prominent skyscrapers...
, Madrid, Spain - 1998 – Reconnaissance: Wales, National Museums and Galleries of Wales, Cardiff, UK
- 1995/97 – Periplanissis : following Ulysses' Gaze, Mylos, Thessaloniki, Greece;
ZappeionZappeionThe Zappeion is a building in the National Gardens of Athens in the heart of Athens, Greece. It is generally used for meetings and ceremonies, both official and private.-Constructing the 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 - 1994 – Cerny trojuhelnik - Podkrusnohori : Fotografie 1990–1994 (Black Triangle), Salmovsky Palac, Prague, Czech Republic
- 1990 – Josef Koudelka z Fotografického dila 1958-1990, Umeleckoprumyslové museum, Prague, Czechoslovakia
- 1989 – Josef Koudelka, Mission Transmanche, galerie de l'ancienne poste, Calais, France
- 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 - 1984 – Josef Koudelka, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
- 1977 – Gitans: la fin du voyage, Galerie Delpire, Paris;
Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland; The Tel-Aviv Museum, Israel;
Victoria & Albert Museum - 1975 – Josef Koudelka, Museum of Modern Art, New York, US
- 1968 – Josef Koudela: Divadelni fotografie – 1965-1968, Divadlo za branou, Prague, Czechoslovakia
- 1967 – Josef Koudela: Cikáni – 1961-1966, Divadlo za branou, Prague, Czechoslovakia
- 1961 – Divadlo Semafor, Prague, Czechoslovakia
Grants and Awards
- British Arts Council grant (1976)
- The Prix NadarPrix NadarThe Prix Nadar is an annual prize awarded for a photography book edited in France. The prize was created in 1955 and is awarded by a jury of photojournalists and publishing experts....
(1978) - The United States National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the ArtsThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Photography Grant (1980), - The Grand Prix National de la Photographie (1989)
- The Grand Prix Cartier-Bresson (1991)
External links
Photographs- Josef Koudelka – photographs, books, exhibitions, Magnum PhotosMagnum PhotosMagnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices located in New York, Paris, London and Tokyo...
, on magnumphotos.com - Josef Koudelka – Photographs some slides of his works, Masters of Photography, on masters-of-photography.com
Articles
- Entre Vues : Frank Horvat – Joseph Koudelka, interviews with Frank Horvat, Paris, January and March 1987
- On Exile, by Czesław Miłosz, introductory text from the Exiles (1988), on masters-of-photography.com
- Photography View: Josef Koudelka's Melancholy Visions of Gypsy Life, New York Times, May 9, 1993
- A look at the Josef Koudelka retrospective at the National GalleryNational Gallery in PragueThe National Gallery in Prague is a state-owned art gallery in Prague, Czech Republic. It is housed in different locations within the city, the largest being the Veletržní Palác....
's Trades Fair Palace in Prague, 2003 - Praga '68 – la Primavera di Koudelka, La Domenica di RepubblicaLa Repubblicala Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...
, article and interview about Koudelka photographs of the Soviet invasion of Prague (pages 1 to 5), April 27, 2008 - 1968: Josef Koudelka and 1968, summer of hate, The Sunday TimesThe Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
, May 11, 2008 – The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia sent shock waves around the world. Amy Turner meets Josef Koudelka, the reclusive photographer who saw the tanks roll in, then smuggled these historic images to the West