FW: [Leica] A day with Koudelka

["Tim Atherton" <timphoto@nt.sympatico.ca>]

For Koudelka fans, this was posted on the LUG last year (NOT by me...!).

You can also find a short bio at the Magnum site (along with all those other
Magnum photogs:
http://www.magnumphotos.co.uk/magnumphotos/photogs/koudelka.htm

Tim A


- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Gerry Walden
Sent: December 14, 1998 3:23 AM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: [Leica] A day with Koudelka


What a great day we had on Saturday! I picked up on a notice on one of the
Bulletin Boards (thanks Keith Morris) a couple weeks ago stating that Joseph
Koudelka had 4 exhibitions opening in Cardiff, Wales on the same day.
Following further information from Keith and making more enquiries I managed
to get Private View invitations so, joined by Richard Bram (M3 over his
shoulder) from London, my wife and I made the trip to Cardiff.
There was a bus laid on to take people from show to show – and what some
shows! In the party, and very chatty, was Ian Berry (Magnum, vice-president)
who I had met before and famed for his work in Sharpeville at the massacre.
He was complaining gently about the lack of "meaningful" work in the
documentary field. He was busy with corporate work, but wanted to get his
teeth into something worthwhile in the photo-journalistic sense. He was
accompanied by Bryn Cambell (renowned b&w landscapes - "he’s Welsh and still
got bloody lost" complained Berry) and the ex-head of the Magnum London
office.   Ian was working with a M6 to photograph Koudelka talking to people
etc.
We started with Koudelkas early theatre work in Prague – all soot and
whitewash and very 60’s. Great stuff but maybe a bit dated by today’s
standards. Large prints though and superbly made and framed. Just as we were
leaving the man himself rushed in with a small bottle in a carrier – "It’s
not vodka" he reassured us "It’s stain to touch up the frames!" Koudelka
stayed with us for the rest of the tour, and I was able to spend some
considerable time chatting to him. What a great guy!
We then moved to a second gallery to view contacts from his work on
"landscapes" in South Wales. I will call them landscapes but they show the
industrial land as it really is! The contacts are exquisite individually
framed prints from the negatives made on a Fuji617 (6 x 17cm panoramic
camera). They are framed in white on white gallery walls to form a frieze
around the length of the gallery. Koudelka was commissioned to do this body
of work following his "Black Triangle" work in Czechoslovakia (as it was
then – now Slovakia). There was a personal surprise for me at this point – I
asked Joseph to sign the 34-metre long concertina’d book of "Black Triangle"
that I purchased at the original show in Prague for £12 ($20). "You know
this is selling in New York for $550 unsigned now, don’t you?" he asked.
The third gallery was showing his collection of images "Exiles" which were
my kind of image! A mixed bag of wonderful images from various places of
people and their situations. The man complaining to his horse that he (the
horse) hadn’t made enough effort to get sold at the horse fair whilst the
horse stands head bowed etc. etc. Just beautiful, and wonderfully seen!
Back to the National Museum of Wales for the official reception and to view
the South Wales project that we had seen the contacts from earlier in the
day. Large (like 40" x 30" or there abouts) prints again beautifully
executed.
What a day! I can sum it up by saying I met a wonderful man who I would love
to have dinner with next time I am in Paris or Prague (he spends his time
between the two cities where he has homes in both.) I want him to bequeath
me his eyes when he dies (heaven forbid!) and tell me who does his printing
for him.   A number of Leicas in evidence - and good to see that Magnum
still seems to favour them!