Koudelka's Prague invasion of 68 at Centro Forma in Milan

mfogiel

mfogiel

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I've seen this beautiful exhibition today, and the things which have struck me are:
- the photos are VERY emotionally powerful
- composition and cropping is most often secondary to the "event recording" content
- the technique is excellent - most prints were about 60x90 cm and still held enough detail

I just wonder if anyone knows what camera he was using - considering most likely that all that was shot on an old style ORWO or FOMA film, the results are all the more impressive...

BTW, the exhibition should run till the end of the month.
 
My favorite photog. I would love to see that exhibit. Russell Miller in the book "Magnum" describes him as using a "battered Leica" but that description comes from shortly after Prague. The Magnum photog Ian Berry describes Koudelka/Prague in the book as follows: "The only other photographer I saw was an absolute maniac who had a couple of old-fashioned cameras on string round his neck and a cardboard box over his shoulders, who was actually just going up to the Russians, clambering over their tanks and photographing them openly. He had the support of the crowd, who would move in and surround him whenever the Russians tried to take his film. I felt either this guy was the bravest man around or or the biggest lunatic around." (p. 234)

Perhaps of more interest is Koudelka's probable lens use. There's a description at this link that speaks to how Koudelka came to use a 25mm Zeiss Flektogon lens. He used this lens for most of his work in Romania with the gypsies and he did return to Prague immediately after that, and then the Russians invaded. Quite a few of the pictures from Prague have the perspective of a 24/25 so he may well have used an Exakta as well as a Leica.

Invasion - Josek Koudelka
 
he is/was a member of old Magnum so I imagine he used Leicas to some extent. I have three of his books, including Koudelka. He also uses a Hasselblad RF pano. His shots during the collapse of WTC are absolutely powerful -- see NY September 11(Magnum, 2001).
 
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