Josef Koudelka: Diaries

Over the course of fifty-plus years, Josef Koudelka (born in Moravia, Czech Republic, 1938) has kept sixty-nine journals. Distilled now into one richly illustrated volume, Josef Koudelka: Diaries offers a look inside the mind of the iconoclastic Czech photographer renowned for his life in exile and a career that has included legendary projects on the Roma, the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Prague, and the devastating impact humans have had on the landscape.

Facsimile pages from the diaries, along with images by the photographer, including self portraits, lend the volume an immediacy and authenticity. As curator Tomáš Pospěch writes, “Koudelka’s diaries are a ‘cookbook’ of classic photography. He associated with the most renowned photographers. His notes sum up his rich experience, including work created with the now vanishing technology of analog black and white photography. His remarks, quips, and stories reappear, just as he repeatedly made resolutions, affirmed the rules he had adopted, and recalled earlier events and dreams.” Revealed throughout the book are Koudelka’s thoughts on photographers, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, and editors, curators, and friends, including Robert Delpire and Anna Fárová, along with notes on some of his most widely circulated images.

Josef Koudelka: Diaries is developed in collaboration with the Josef Koudelka Foundation. The publication has been supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic. Aperture also wishes to thank Elizabeth and Mark Levine for their contribution to this project. Josef Koudelka: Diaries is published by Aperture and available at aperture.org.