1.
Joseph Koudelka

2.
Biography
• Born in Czechoslovakia
• Began Photographing in teenage
• Studied Aeronautical engineering in Czech technological university
immediately after graduation he had his first photography exhibition
• Received commissions from theatre magazines,
• Photographs to stage productions at Bronx theatre using only sex
camera
• Did this part time for six years
• Eventually became a full time photographer

3.
By photographing theatre you learnt to see the world as theatre

4.
• Alongside was also photographing : Romani people = Gypsies (eng) in
• Rural Romania , France , hungary , Spain
• Romani people are found in Europe & adjoining part of asia
• Believed to be originally belonging to northwestern india
(rajasthan,Punjab)
• From 1961 to 68
• Work published in “Gypsies” in 1975

5.
One of the seminal photoessays of the 20th Century,

6.
Isolation
Human Relationships
Death

7.
• Returned to Prague
• In a short time prague or Czech republic was invaded by Russia
• Extensively photographed this invasion
• The films smuggled and published in Sunday times London & Look
Magazine USA
• Under the pseudoname P.P. (prague photographer)
• Highly appreciated and acclaimed
• However due to political threats he remained anonymous
• Received Overseas Press Club’s Robert Capa Gold Medal

8.
"Only after the death of my father did I admit that they were mine“
1984

9.
• Fled to England
• Sought political asylum
• Initially for 3 months which eventually became a decade
• Received support from Henry cartier Bresson & Robert Delpire
• Became magnum photographer

10.
• Joining Magnum not only gave Koudelka a bank of friends, but also a
network of people to help him out and places to stay when he
travelled. However, Koudelka did not work as a conventional agency
photographer, turning down assignments, and choosing instead to
travel and to pursue a personal study. He photographed the gypsy
population, minority groups, and everything that is destined to
become extinct, to be ‘exiled’ in some way –

11.
• “To be in exile is simply to have left one’s country and to be unable to
return. Every exile is a different, personal experience. Myself, I
wanted to see the world and photograph it. That’s forty-five years I’ve
been travelling. I’ve never stayed anywhere more than three months.

12.
“For fifteen years, I didn’t work for anybody. I
never accepted any assignment, never
photographed for money. I took photographs
just for myself. I lived on the minimum. I didn’t
need much: a good sleeping bag and some
clothes – one pair of shoes, two pairs of socks
and a pair of trousers for one year. One jacket
and two shirts lasted me for three years,”

13.
• 1990s and beyond :
• Majorly photographs landscapes
• Chaos (1999)

14.
• In 1987, Koudelka became a French citizen, and was able to return to
Czechoslovakia for the first time, in 1990.[2]
• 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.

15.
• Koudelka's impressive imagery is
accompanied here by five essays that
provide a thorough understanding of and
appreciation for this outstanding artist,
willfully independent and reclusive
despite his renown.

16.
• most recent book Wall: Israeli and Palestinian Landscapes was
published by Aperture Foundation in 2013

17.
If you photograph people you are losing all the time something; you are running
after something which doesn’t exist anymore. If you photograph the landscape,
you are waiting

18.
• Koudelka lives in France and Prague and is continuing his work
documenting the European landscape

19.
Thank you.