Interesting Koudelka Interview

[L Collins]

This is part two, with a link to part one:

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/20/josef-koudelka-a-restless-eye/?hp&_r=0

 

[finguanzo]

Thanks for the link..
One of the greats, amazing work..

 

[jsrockit]

Wow, didn't expect this...

Q.
Other than the practical elements of carrying and developing film, was there any difference between digital and film?
A.
For me it is the same. Only I enjoy digital more. I don’t carry a computer. I come inside in the evening, and until 12 o’clock I look at the screen on the back of the camera, and I eliminate.

 

[thebelbo]

Indeed a great photographer, thanks for sharing!

 

[--s]

yeah, thanks for the link!

 

[Lauffray]

I love how he just quit everything at 30 to go photograph the Roma in Romania

 

[Godfrey]

thanks for posting. good read, very interesting person.

G

 

[L Collins]

I "grew up" photographically loving his work of the 60s and 70s. It was so quintessential "film" photography, the perfect example of why I think B&W film will never be matched by digital.

So his comments on digital and his preference for it over film really surprised me.

 

[Godfrey]

I "grew up" photographically loving his work of the 60s and 70s. It was so quintessential "film" photography, the perfect example of why I think B&W film will never be matched by digital.

So his comments on digital and his preference for it over film really surprised me.

At the level of a photographer like Josef Koudelka, vision and rendering skill transcends capture medium. 🙂

G

 

[thebelbo]

Teaches us all not to be so "religious" about technologies, it's always the end result that matters. His B&W work is stunning indeed, but he is also the kind of person that experiments. He started in 35mm street photography but did a lot of work later with the wide format on landscapes that is equally powerful.

 

[maddoc]

I "grew up" photographically loving his work of the 60s and 70s. It was so quintessential "film" photography, the perfect example of why I think B&W film will never be matched by digital.

So his comments on digital and his preference for it over film really surprised me.

I think this comment from Voja Mitrovic ("Printer to the Greats, part II over at The Online Photographer) gives some additional hint: "He recounts how Josef Koudelka has spent in recent years more than six hours with a digital printing technician trying to achieve a match with the subtle artistic expression of tones and detail in one of his prints."

 

[Richard G]

Humbling insights. A complete original.

 

[peter_n]

He started in 35mm street photography but did a lot of work later with the wide format on landscapes that is equally powerful.

His book of panoramas Chaos is well worth getting. He comes from a fine Czech panoramic tradition, take a look at Josef Sudek's book Sad Landscape for example. Oddly enough he doesn't seem to acknowledge Sudek's influence on him which must have been enormous. But then Koudelka doesn't give interviews either.