Josef Koudelka

A classic of Czech photography and a member of Magnum Photos, Josef Koudelka (b. 1938) is among the most important humanist photographers in the world. The present publication is the first guide to different stage of his artistically expressive, highly original work. Beginning with the late 1950s, it provides a selection from all the key series of his work – the 1960s, when he was taking innovative photographs of the theater, the Gypsies of central Europe and the Balkans, and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968; the 1970s and ’80s, in the section called “Exiles”, with photographs made during Koudelka’s travels, profoundly revealing sore points of contemporary civilization. The concluding section comprises panoramas focused on frequently drastic changes in the industrialized landscape. The photographs are introduced here with an article by Anna Fárová, a leading expert on Czech photography.