{"id":12588,"date":"2013-06-18T08:53:46","date_gmt":"2013-06-18T15:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=12588"},"modified":"2013-06-20T11:09:42","modified_gmt":"2013-06-20T18:09:42","slug":"insights-from-a-rare-interview-with-josef-koudelka-at-look3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/18\/insights-from-a-rare-interview-with-josef-koudelka-at-look3\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Rare Insights From an Interview with Josef Koudelka at Look3"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"1x1.trans<\/a>
\u00c2\u00a9 Josef Koudelka \/ Magnum Photos. Click to read more<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Josef Koudelka<\/a>, one of the greatest living photographers in history, gave a rare interview at Look 3 in Charlottesville\u00c2\u00a0recently. You can see a full transcript of the interview here<\/a>, but I wanted to share some specific insights which I got from the interview below.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On freedom:<\/h2>\n
\"1x1.trans
\u00c2\u00a9 Josef Koudelka \/ Magnum Photos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Freedom is the essential thing in my life<\/strong>. This year I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m participating in Venice Bienniale.\u00c2\u00a0Five years ago I accepted to photograph in Israel. What do I do? First of all,\u00c2\u00a0 it must be interesting for me<\/strong>, I must have the freedom to do it how I want to do it<\/strong>, and control the result<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u201cfreedom to control absolutely the result, in anything I do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On spontaneity:<\/h2>\n
\"1x1.trans
\u00c2\u00a9 Josef Koudelka \/ Magnum Photos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a very spontaneous photographer. I just go and I photograph<\/strong>. But what the advantage was, which is in fact repeating in all my work, you know, [is that] you go, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know much, you react, and you look at what [is] coming, and you try to exploit what is coming out. So every night I develop the films, I look, next day I try to do it better.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You look at these photographs of the theater. [The director] realized that these are not the pictures of the actors, that it was behind [their countenances]. I was never really interested in documenting the things<\/strong>. In any picture I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m doing, even if my picture can serve as a document\u00e2\u20ac\u201c[unintelligible] what [the director] said, he said Josef, you were lying. But you were lying to tell the truth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On developing relationships:<\/h2>\n
\"1x1.trans
\u00c2\u00a9 Josef Koudelka \/ Magnum Photos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(On photographing for his “Gypsies” project): Of course you develop the relationship with the people. During next 8 years I visited many different villages.<\/p>\n

What helped me was [that] I loved the gypsy music<\/strong>, I love generally all folk music. I was carrying with me a very primitive tape recorder, and I recorded the songs. I think it probably helped me to [gain their] confidence. <\/strong><\/p>\n

They realized that if I liked the music, I liked something more. It was really not difficult, and I of course I was giving the pictures to the people, too.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On embracing extreme situations:<\/h2>\n
\"1x1.trans
\u00c2\u00a9 Josef Koudelka \/ Magnum Photos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(On photographing the Prague invasion): I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not [a] very courageous man.<\/strong> These pictures I did not [do] because I have got a big courage, but because it was [an] extreme situation<\/strong>. And something got out of me, maybe what was the best of me. And it was not only my case. It was the case of most of these people who were on the street.<\/p>\n

We were not thinking, we were working. I never photographed the news before.<\/strong> I was never in a situation like that. When my\u00c2\u00a0 girlfriend woke me up [and] said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Russians are here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe [it]. I pick[ed] up the camera to go take pictures, and there were so many things happening around [me]. Pictures were everywhere. So I did these pictures not to be published\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6I developed these pictures probably one month or two months later. I print[ed] some of them, and they [were] never meant to be published. So everything that happened after [was] just by chance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I left Czechoslovakia because as I said I am not [a] courageous man, but because I knew that they could find me, and I was not brave enough to go to the prison. And they would have [found] me\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6[because] I was the guy who photographed most. Everybody knew it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On traveling<\/h2>\n
\"1x1.trans
\u00c2\u00a9 Josef Koudelka \/ Magnum Photos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I [have] been traveling all the time; I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still traveling, 43 years<\/strong>. I think probably somebody asked me, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Did you ever stay in one place longer than three months?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I ever stayed. And today at breakfast somebody asked me about home\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

I [do] plan the trips\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6I know where I go<\/strong>. Before it was different. Now I have a really tight schedule. Before I used to go for three months to one country<\/strong>. I took the train from London, I get to Paris, I stayed there, I went to Milano, then I stay in Florence, then I went to Sicily for one month, two months. Now it is slightly different.<\/p>\n

Yeah, yeah\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6I have been traveling all the time. In fact, [for] 16 years I never paid any rent, and I never take any job. First job which I take was before my daughter was supposed to be born, and I was afraid that I should have certain money.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m the photographer who needs to travel. If I stay long in one place, I become blind.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On inspirations (or lack there-of):<\/h2>\n
\"1x1.trans
\u00c2\u00a9 Josef Koudelka \/ Magnum Photos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You know, I have never got any heroes in my life, and in photography neither<\/strong>. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve read photographers that write [about] photographs. I remember when [someone I met] showed me some books, even Robert Frank\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. It didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t [mean] anything to me. She showed [Henri Cartier] Bresson. I was not excited.<\/p>\n

The relationship which I have got with Bresson, which was very different than most of the Magnum photographers or maybe other photographers outside of Magnum, because probably I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come to photography\u00c2\u00a0 because I liked his photographs. In fact there are certain photographs which I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like, and I was able to tell it to him and he was, eh, maybe he was not happy but\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6and he was,\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why are you having this spaghetti panoramic, just nothing [photography],\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and it was perfectly all right.<\/p>\n

So Sudek, I remember seeing pictures from [him] which I really hated. These were these pictorialist pictures which were out of focus. I was using a 25mm lens [and] I wanted to have everything in focus. I think he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a fantastic photographer, like Bresson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a fantastic photographer, Frank is a good photographer. But I never met him. I never felt [the]\u00c2\u00a0 need to go to see him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On shooting digital:<\/h2>\n
\"Koudelka
Koudelka with the Fujifilm x100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to find people to sponsor my trips, who pay [to] develop all the film, and make the contact sheets. What is fantastic now is that I can pick up this [digital] camera. I can buy the ticket by myself. and I can go.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On getting feedback from peers:<\/h2>\n
\"1x1.trans
\u00c2\u00a9 Josef Koudelka \/ Magnum Photos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is not defining the vision, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about something else. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know maybe one photographer who can say that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an extremely good judge of his photographs\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6. I need three people who I have as a reference<\/strong>, if my pictures are good or bad. I need somebody who knows something about life, maybe not much about photography or about composition. Then I need somebody who knows something about composition, and then I need the third one just for correction who knows something about both.<\/p>\n

If I like picture, if I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good, and these three people like the picture, too, I have more reason [to think] the picture is good<\/strong>. Many times\u00c2\u00a0 I liked the picture, and none of them liked it. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not going to shoot myself, because maybe there still is something. They know before what I was like, but they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know by this picture what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to be later.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can see a full transcript of the interview here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To learn more about Josef Koudelka, read this post:\u00c2\u00a010 Lessons Josef Koudelka Has Taught Me About Street Photography<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Josef Koudelka, one of the greatest living photographers in history, gave a rare interview at Look 3 in Charlottesville\u00c2\u00a0recently. You can see a full transcript of the interview here, but I wanted to share \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1456,1457],"class_list":["post-12588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts","tag-josef-koudelka","tag-look-3"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/koudelka-1.jpg?fit=500%2C337&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}