Quote: "The maximum, that is what has always interested me."
Josef Koudelka joined Magnum Photos in 1971 and became a full Member in 1974.
Josef Koudelka
Czech/French, b. Czechoslovakia 1938

Josef Koudelka, born in Moravia, made his first photographs while a student in the 1950s. About the same time that he started his career as an aeronautical engineer in 1961 he also began photographing Gypsies in Czechoslovakia and theater in Prague. He turned full-time to photography in 1967. The following year, Koudelka photographed the Soviet invasion of Prague, publishing his photographs under the initials P. P. (Prague Photographer) for fear of reprisal to him and his family. In 1969, he was anonymously awarded the Overseas Press Club's Robert Capa Gold Medal for those photographs.

Koudelka left Czechoslovakia for political asylum in 1970 and shortly thereafter joined Magnum Photos. In 1975, he brought out his first book Gypsies, and in 1988, Exiles. Since 1986, he has worked with a panoramic camera and issued a compilation of these photographs in his book Chaos in 1999. Koudelka has had more than a dozen books of his work published, including most recently in 2006 the retrospective volume Koudelka.

He has won significant awards such as the Prix Nadar (1978), a Grand Prix National de la Photographie (1989), a Grand Prix Cartier-Bresson (1991), and the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography (1992). Significant exhibitions of his work have been held at the Museum of Modern Art and the International Center of Photography, New York; the Hayward Gallery, London; the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art, Amsterdam; and the Palais de Tokyo, Paris.

Education

1956/61 Degree in Engineering, The Technical University of Prague, Czechoslovakia

Awards

2004 Cornell Capa Infinity Award, International Center of Photography, USA
1992 Erna and Victor Hasselblad Foundation Photography Prize, Sweden
1991 Grand Prix Henri Cartier-Bresson, France
1987 Grand Prix National de la Photographie, French Ministry of Culture, France
1980 National Endowment for the Arts Council, USA
1978 Prix Nadar, France
1976 British Arts Council Grant to cover life in the British Isles, UK
1973 British Arts Council Grant to cover Gypsy life in Britain, UK
1972 British Arts Council Grant to cover Kendal and Southend, UK
1969 Robert Capa Gold Medal Award, National Press Photographers Association, USA
1967 Award by Union of Czechoslovakian Artists, Czechoslovakia

Exhibitions

2003 Teatro del Tempo - Mercati di Traiano, Roma, Italy
2002/03 Rétrospective - Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles, France;
Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico;
Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Monterrey, Mexico
2002 Josef Koudelka : Fotograf - National Gallery, Prague, Czech
Republic
1999/01 Chaos - Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma, Italy; Cantieri Culturali della Zisa,
Palermo, Italy; Palazzo Marino alla Scala, Milano Italy; The Snellman Hall,
Helsinki, Finland; sala de exposiciones de Plaza de Espana, Madrid, Spain
1998 Reconnaissance: Wales - National Museums and Galleries of Wales, Cardiff, UK
1995/97 Periplanissis : following Ulysses' Gaze - Mylos, Thessaloniki, Greece;
Zapeion, Athens, Greece; Centre culturel Una Volta, Bastia, France;
ville de Rodez, France; Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan;
Museo di Storia della Fotografia, Fratelli Alinari, Firenze, Italy
1994 Cerny trojuhelnik - Podkrusnohori : Fotografie 1990 -1994 (Black Triangle) -
Salmovsky Palac, Prague,Czech Republic
1990 Josef Koudelka z Fotografickécho Dila 1958-1990 -
Umeleckoprumyslové, Prague, Czechoslovakia
1989 Josef Koudelka, Mission Transmanche - galerie de l'ancienne poste, Calais, France
1988/89 Josef Koudelka, Centre National de la Photographie, Palais de Tokyo, Paris,
France; International Center of Photography, New York, USA; Akademie
der Künste, Berlin; Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany; IVAM, Valencia,
Spain
1984 Josef Koudelka - Hayward Gallery, London, UK
1977 Gitans: la fin du voyage, Galerie Delpire, Paris; Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich,
Switzerland; The Tel-Aviv Museum, Israel; Victoria & Albert Museum
1975 Josef Koudelka - The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
1968 Josef Koudela: Divaldeni fotografie – 1965-1968, Divadlo za branou,
Prague, Czechoslovakia
1967 Josef Koudela: Cikáni – 1961-1966 - Divadlo za branou,
Prague, Czechoslovakia
1961 Divadlo Semafor, Prague, Czechoslovakia

Books

2006 Koudelka, Delpire, France; Contrasto, Italy; Aperture, USA;
Thames & Hudson, UK; Braus, Germany; Lunwerg, Spain; Fototorst, Czech
Republic
2006 Koudelka: Camargue, Actes Sud, France
2004 L'épreuve totalitaire (essay by Jean-Pierre Montier), Delpire, France
2003 Théatre du Temps, Actes Sud, France; (Teatro del Tempo), Peliti Associati, Italy;
Apeiron, Greece
2001 Lime Stone, La Martinière, France
1999 Chaos, Nathan/Delpire, France; Phaidon Press, UK; Federico Motta Editore, Italy
1998 Reconnaissance Wales, Ffotogallery/ National Museums and Galleries of Wales,
Cardiff, UK
1994 Cerny Trojuhelník - Podkru?nohorí : Fotografie 1990-1994 (The Black Triangle:
The Foothills of the Ore Mountain) Vesmir, Czech Republic
1993 Josef Koudelka, Hasselblad Center, Sweden
1993 Josef Koudelka: Fotografie Divadlo za branou 1965-1970, Divadlo za Branou II,
Czech Republic
1990 Prague 1968, Centre National de la Photographie, France
1990 Animal, Trois Cailloux/maison de la Culture d'Amiens, France
1989 Mission Photographique Transmanche, Editions de la Différence, France
1988/97 Exils, Centre National de la Photographie, France; Delpire éditeur, France (Exiles),
Aperture, USA; Thames & Hudson, UK
1984 Photo Poche, Centre National de la Photographie, France
1982 Josef Koudelka: I Grandi Fotografi, Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri, Italy
1975 Gitans : la fin du voyage, Delpire, France; (Gypsies), Aperture, USA
1966 Kral Ubu: Rozbor inscenace Divadla Na Zabradli v Praze (with Alfred Jarry)
Divadelni Ustav, Czechoslovakia
1965 Diskutujeme o moralce dneska, Nakladatelstvi Politické Literatury, Czechoslovakia