Koudelka [Hardcover]

Robert Delpire (Author), Dominique Edde (Author), Anna Farova (Author), Josef Koudelka (Photographer)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1597110302 | ISBN-13: 978-1597110303 | Publication Date: March 1, 2007 | Edition: First Edition

Stark, impassioned, and singularly intense, the work of the itinerant and fiercely independent Czech photographer, Josef Koudelka, has received deserved acclaim over the past three decades for having made a uniquely significant contribution to the language of photography. This major new monograph presents the most comprehensive survey of Koudelka's work to date, bringing together more than 150 of his most eloquent images--from his earliest, many published here for the first time, to his most recent: mesmerizing studies of the European landscape made with a panoramic camera. Whether photographing Prague's avant-garde theater scene in the 1960s, the secretive world of the Eastern European gypsies, Czech resistance to the Soviet advance on Prague, or the environmental degradation of our postindustrial world, Koudelka has consistently produced transformative images that stand outside of time and place. In the words of the legendary French photography-world figure and Koudelka's longtime champion and publisher, Robert Delpire, "Koudelka brings an intense eye and full heart to each place, object, and person. This work proves once again that he is a photographer with unique personality and power." Beautifully produced with duotone printing and three gatefolds, this volume also contains eight original essays, each exploring a different aspect of Koudelka's work and illustrating the artist's constant evolution and intensity.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Revealing the breadth of Josef Koudelka's artistic achievement, this lavish collection gathers over 150 of the photographer's major works in one volume for the first time. Born in 1938 in Moravia (now in the Czech Republic), Koudelka grew up behind the Iron Curtain and trained to be an aeronautical engineer. His early images, including production stills for a Czech repertory theater company and tense shots of the Soviet invasion of Prague demonstrate the rigorous compositional eye, taste for the theatrical and otherworldly strangeness that define his work. The pictures are always accessible, but Koudelka's arrangements and printing style push much of his work toward somber dreaminess. (Some of the brief monographs interspersed with the pictures are informative; others are filled with pretentious jargon.) After his exile from Czechoslovakia in 1970, he quickly found a home at the renowned Magnum agency with the support of Cartier-Bresson. In Koudelka's subsequent work—a series on Gypsies; stunning, nearly abstract landscapes; the shipping of a colossal Lenin statue through the Balkans—he remains a poet with a lens, capturing a deeply personal vision while documenting the real world. This collection confirms Koudelka's status as one of the most versatile and singular age-makers in contemporary photography. (Mar.)
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Review

"...whatever his subject matter, Koudelka's photographs are marked by his indelible persona. It is this that enables them to transcend mere form: with the eye of a poet, he sees into the soul of his subjects, giving viewers a privileged glimpse into the ineffable." -- Lara Day --Time Magazine

"Josef Koudelka's photographs are perfect in form, powerful in context and profoundly moving. This gorgeous volume spans more than four decades' images of love, angst, destruction, joy and despair." -- Shawn O'Sullivan --B&W Magazine

"Stark, impassioned, and singularly intense, the work of the itinerant and fiercely independent Czech photographer, Josef Koudelka, has received deserved acclaim over the past three decades for having made a uniquely significant contribution to the lanugage of photography. This major new monograph presents the most comprehensive study of Koudelka's work to date." -- Donna Conrad --Focus: Fine Art Photography Magazine

"Ethereal. Graphic. Political. Intensely personal. The photographs of Josef Koudelka are all of these things. Above all, they are beautiful and moving." -- R.K. Dickson --The Bloomsbury Review

"Filled with stark, fascinating, timeless and beautiful panoramic landscapes shot by a reputed and restless wanderer, this book really pulls you in." --Picture Magazine: For the Emerging Professional Photographer

Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: Aperture; First Edition edition (March 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597110302
• ISBN-13: 978-1597110303
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 11.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,581,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent overview of Koudelka's opus, July 29, 2007

By 

Nenad Amodaj (San Francisco, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Koudelka (Hardcover)

Excellent, well balanced overview of Kuoudelka's work from his earliest days, experimenting with expressive, graphical effects and theater photography, through journalism, all the way to his latest achievements in panoramic, abstract landscapes. This book can serve as an introduction to this outstanding artist and motivation for exploring his opus in more detail.

The integrity of Koudelka's photographs is one thing that really stands out in this book. Although his technical range is very wide, his themes varied and his career lengthy, a common, unifying vision is evident, linking his earliest and his latest work.

The design of the book is elegant and restrained, printing and binding of very high quality. Highly recommended.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Koudelka a unique photographic genius, May 14, 2007

By 

Yiannos Demetriou - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Koudelka (Hardcover)

It is a great pleasure for me to have this book in my library. I keep going back to it and every time I discover something more, something new. Koudelka never copied anybody, he is authentic, just like his is in his real life. He has an honest and clearly distinct way of viewing the world, and I thank him for sharing it with us.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars exercellent, September 16, 2007

By 

U. Lap (Macau, Macau) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Koudelka (Hardcover)

Koudelka is a great photographor. From his works, we figure out that we have to travel all over the world to get beautiful pictures. And from his works, we know it is not easy to get good pictures. First of all, we try to get involve into the pictures objects' life. Let they trust us and let us be the part of them. Actually, this is not easy at all. Not every one can do that and travel in a very long time. That is his life. Pictures were his life experients.