Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unique, compositionally stunning, atmospheric., 25 Jan 2001
By A Customer
I get lost in this book for hours; were I only allowed ten books, this would be one of them. I agree with the many critics who say that it will become a classic. Large panoramic black and white photographs of peopleless landscapes and city streets. Some of the images verge on abstract, although in Josef Koudelka's own unique way and certainly not in the classic abstract style. One of the main strengths of this book is composition, but without any sense of contrived cleverness. The subject matter itself in many images is awesome; in others, the use of the subject matter is awesome - or both. It's strange to think that that there are still jaw dropping sights that are largely unknown. A big book, beautifully printed with rich deep blacks and paper whites. Paper quality is excellent. If the publisher reads this, I would love a mini version to complement the full version. My thanks to Josef Koudelka.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Chaos, 5 Jan 2004
Czech born Josef Koudelka trained as an aeronautical engineer at the Technical University in Prague. He began making photographs in 1956 and came to fame, albeit anonymously, when he photographed the Russian invasion of his homeland ten years later. Two years after the invasion he came to the West but this was only the beginning of his journey. It is seemingly never ending and, although a man of few words, he is perhaps best described as a witness to our times. This is not to say that his watching is either arbitrary or passive: there is a searching and a need to know in his work. His first book, Gypsies, was published in 1975 and is one of the classic photographic monographs of the century. In 1988, by which time he had “settled” in France, he published Exiles which was as well received as his first opus. Chaos, beautifully produced by Phaidon Press, is Koudelka’s first major publication for more than ten years. Chaos is made with a panoramic camera, a tool Koudelka first used when photographing in Northern France for the arts project associated with the construction of the Channel Tunnel. As well as differing in format from his past publications it also differs in subject matter, for here Koudelka addresses himself to a memory of humanity rather than humanity itself. In his previous books Koudelka’s vision, although a harsh one, is tinged with compassion and respect: empathy softens the contrasty prints. Chaos however seems to address a grander vision. The first image, resembling nothing more than an icon struck down in the maelstrom of the changing Eastern Block, turns out to have been made in California in 1991. This is not a book about the chaos left in the wake of any single political system. Equally it is far from solely contemporary or even restricted to this century. Along with Auschwitz, Berlin and Bosnia, Koudelka’s journey has also paused to consider the foundations of civilisation at Delphi and Athens. Images are also made from the air and perspectival conventions cast aside with deliberation. It seems as if Koudelka has reached a point in his quest where he needs to peel back the very landscape itself. In the stark, naked, beauty of these landscapes Koudelka may, at the turn of the millennium, in actuality be offering his viewer a memory from a future yet to come.
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Book you can't take your eyes off, 26 Jan 2000
By A Customer
This is something I did not expect to see, an outstanding and very "Magnum" view on the world mainly Eastern Europe. Josef Koudelka was a photographer not known to me before but after seeing his book and the exbition, he has got a lot to show. Definetly the book to have!!!
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