EXILES by Josef Koudelka

[john_elder1]

I looked at this book for the first time in a couple years tonight.

In fact, I had to look at the whole book twice. This book is the rare

combination of Document, Street Work, and High Fine Art. Until

tonight i hadn't fully appreciated how great this book is. Every

picture can stand on its own and the book as a whole makes a strong

statement about its given topic:exiles. There is just a tremendous

number of great shots in this book;truly amazing. I post this topic

so that people who haven't seen this work can look for it. I also

post it for a few people in particular because they might have some

response or the work might influence their work to some degree. So,

in particular I would hope that Edmo, Thomas Sullivan, Sam L, Grant,

Takkaki[sp?], Jeff Spirer,and Mike Dixon look at the work and repond.

If you buy Photo books, this is a must have; one of the best I own

and I have a few.

[bruno]

Koudelka's work is amazing. I don't have exiles, but I browsed through it once... and had the opportunity to see a couple of his exhibitions here and there (Kaos and Theatre of Time).

 

Hope my answer is worth as much as edmo's :)

[john_elder1]

To Peter: It is rare work to sucessfully combine street work and documentary work in the same group of images ot in a single image.

People tend to think of the 2 categories as separate. EXILES is a rare example combining the two. What do you have to say that is constructive? Maybe you are unaware of the distiction between the two?

If you don't have something constructive to say, why not be quite?

[thomas_sullivan]

well, John....looked at the pics and they're great. Have seen some of his stuff before, actually, probably on the Magnum site come to think of it. Asking me about "categories" of photography is a lost cause though ;o)

 

I almost have a grasp on what Fine Art and Street Photography is..........maybe. But Documentary Photography........honestly, haven't a clue.

 

Looking at Koudelka's stuff, how the book was assembled (Exile), at least on the Magnum site, and the variety of countries the pics came from, and the dates of the actual pics I gather this was not an "assignment". So that leaves me to believe that it was a private pursuit of Koudelka's spanning a number of years that finally ended as a book and exhibition.

 

If I went by that standard, I could take every pic I have taken in NYC, Philly, the Jersey shore, and the train rides inbetween since 9/11 and entitle it "New York City to Philadelphia corridor Post 9/11" and I would have produced a body of work considered a Documentary. Obviously not.......this I do understand........but what makes his documentary of Exiles all that much different than what I could concoct (forgetting that he's a much better photographer than me......for the moment). He goes from street, to rural, to shore, to dif cities.........just like mine would. His theme is Exiles, mine is a certain geographical areas lifestyle after 9/11 (or it would be when I got done picking out the appropriate pics.......which is I'm sure exactly what he did). So...........What exactly make his Documentary?

 

Because I really don't get that "tag".....Documentary. Probably the least understood category by me that gets placed on a group of pics.

[john_elder1]

Thomas: Perhaps the best I can do to explain Documentary photography is to give some examples.Eugene Richards books: Cocaine True, cocain Blue, Exploding into Life, The Rod and Gun Club, are all documents. Eugene Smiths photo esays for Life Magazine were all documents.Kouldelka's Gypsies, also a document. 100 East Street and Central Park by Bruce Davidson are documentary as well as fine art. Kouldelka's book Exiles is documentary in that the images are making a social comment about a particular, stated, theme. The subject documented being Exiles. I would probably dissagree with you about your envisioned book. I think It would fit the documentary category.

If I shoot Cops for 20 years in 20 countries with a certain purpose in mind and display the work, I think it could be described as documentary. Larry Clark's books:Tulsa and Teenage Lust are documentary. I think alot of Arbus' work was documentary. In any event almost every picture in the book Exiles conveys a message which is a common meesage throughout the book. I would consider Lewis Baltz's work documentary. There is also a trend to look at Winnogrand's work as documentary even though he didn't intend it as such: the work in fact documents NYC in the 60's and 70's. Thanks for responding.

[magumi]

Well, Josef Koudelka is one of the best photographers of all time, so there is no wonder you are amazed. But if you saw his contact prints, as I have on a large exhibition a couple of years ago, you would be flabbergasted. I almost gave up photography when I saw them. Most photographers would have signed up a contract with devil to take a single photograph like <A HREF="http://www.magnumphotos.com/c/htm/CDocZ_MAG.aspx?Stat=DocThumb_DocZoom&o=&DT=ALB&E=2TYRYD1KHWY1&Pass=&Total=49&Pic=6&SubE=2S5RYDZ3NH@3">this one</A> in all their life, that is, if they were not afraid of being shot, if someone spotted them photographing, but he had an entire roll full of these! This person is a monster :-).

[doris_chan]

"Boris - thanks for the links"

 

Weird, where did the links go? Has every comment ever made by Boris been removed just

because he took a different stance to a moderator in one thread?