Josef Koudelka, Prague, 1968
"The maximum, that is what has always interested me."
Josef 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.
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.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Koudelka)
http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.PhotographerDetail_VPage&pid=2K7O3R135R3G&nm=Josef%20Koudelka
