A genius is still alive

Josef Koudelka (b. 1938) is a Czech mastermind.

His journey towards his current position as one of the world’s most appreciated photographers was initiated in the early 50s, when he began documenting his family. In the 60s he was occupied with photographing gypsies in Czechoslovakia and theatre productions in Prague – up until 1968, when he caught the Sovjet invasion of Prague on film.

Koudelka’s visual approach has a dark, haunting side to it that always draws me straight into his expressive universe. Max Kozloff cleverly describes that “his world may be as inhospitable as It is unfamiliar, but it remains a world of minority cultures, whose religious and funerary rituals It intimately discloses. The question of how long these cultures will continue to exist in recognizable form is held in suspense by his imagery.”

My attempts to borrow his contrasted symbolism have been many: