Photographers: Josef Koudelka

Today I am introducing a photographer who has a really interesting background in photography, and has taken some great photographs through his personal projects, and as a part of his job. Today’s photographer is Josef Koudelka.

Josef Koudelka with his rangefinder

Disclaimer: The photographs in this blog belong to Josef Koudelka.
For more information on a range of photographers, check out the entire series here.

I first found out about Josef Koudelka and his photography through the book Magnum Magnum, where he is introduced along with six of his photographs. I also came across his work in the book Magnum Contact Sheets, which came into my possession in the last few weeks, and I had the chance to look over his negatives from some of his most famous work from the Prague invasion.

Josef Koudelka Photography

Josef started taking photographs of stage productions where he lived, making some money on the side from his engineering job. Some of these photos appeared in the book Magnum Magnum. Later on, he worked on more personal projects, one particularly famous one was of gypsies living in Romania.
Josef Koudelka’s photographs were viewed by the world when he witnessed the invasion of Prague, and started documenting the things going on during that time. Secretly, he sent his film out of the country, to the Magnum photo agency, who published his images under the name P.P. (meaning Prague Photographer). He didn’t use his real name incase there were repercussions on his family and friends. It only later became publicly known that he was the man behind these photographs.

Josef Koudelka Photography

A few years later Josef was able to leave his country, and it was at that time that he became a member of the Magnum photo agency, and later went on to win many photography awards and publish several books.
In this video you can see more of Josef’s famous images, along with the photographs on the roll of film leading up to them. It’s an interesting video, and you see a little more of the process he goes through to get his images.

Josef Koudelka reveal the secrets behind their images.