Quote o' the Day: Josef Koudelka

Q: Other than the practical elements of carrying and developing film, was there any difference between digital and film?

A: "For me it is the same. Only I enjoy digital more. I don’t carry a computer. I come inside in the evening, and until 12 o’clock I look at the screen on the back of the camera, and I eliminate.

"Landscape photography is fantastic. It’s not by chance that as they get older many photographers start with the landscape. There are certain things you have to do to photograph people—you have to be able to run.  If you photograph people, all of the time you are running after something and you are losing all the time. With landscapes you are waiting all the time. It’s much more relaxing."

—Josef Koudelka, one of the greatest photographers
of people in the history of the medium

From the Lens Blog interview by James Estrin in the World's Best Photography Magazine, Part II. Many great quotes in this! I love Koudelka. Here's Part I. Koudelka's current camera is a special B&W panoramic version of the Leica S2 that Leica made especially for him six years ago. Photo of Koudelka in 2014 by NoJin (Jindřich Nosek) via Wikimedia Commons.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Kenneth Tanaka: "I think I can confirm this. I met Josef Koudelka twice. The first was at a private reception for him in 2010. He was wearing his trademark photo vest which looked like a costume amidst the jackets and ties. Having noticed one pocket bulging heavily I took the opportunity during a private moment to point to it and asked, 'Leica?' He winked and nodded, as if I’d just discovered him concealing a pet. I wondered if he’d pulled it out at all during the day.

"My second meeting with Koudelka was at the opening of his retrospective show, 'Josef Koudelka: Nationality Doubtful' in 2014. Gone was the vest, at least that evening, and its Leica bulge. Instead, slung over his shoulder was a silver Fujifilm X100. During a brief conversation I pointed to it and asked how he liked it. He immediately beamed and grabbed it like a prize. His young assistant smiled and rolled her eyes, a silent, 'Oh no, please, don’t get him started on that camera again!' I laughed…loudly."

Comments

[Richard Parkin]

The link to Part 2 seems not to work. Doesn’t work from the NYT page either.

[It works fine for me in both my browsers. Here it is for anyone who might have trouble:

https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/20/josef-koudelka-a-restless-eye/

--Mike]

[Richard Parkin]

This seemz OK for Part 2:
https://nyti.ms/3z5gxYp

[robert e]

On the NYT site, the thumbnail link to Part II is wrong (it links back to Part I), but the text link under it at "Read more" is correct.

[mani]

Plenty of film old-timers feel like this. Hardly surprising, and really very boring.
These days I prefer following young and exciting photographers - the ones using film out of preference and artistic choice.

[I thought the much more interesting aspect of the quote was his comment about his shift from people to landscape, but read it however you like. --Mike]

[Eric Peterson]

Josef Koudelka spoke at the Getty in late 2014 to launch an exhibit of his photos. The transition from film to digital was still quite active, and someone asked his thoughts. With his characteristic impish smile he answered, “Vive la révolution!” He did mention his specially built camera (I thought by Leica) for his consuming interest in a panoramic format. Practically speaking, he said it cost him $100 every time he photographed something with his wide format film camera. He also mentioned he was a dad by then and needed to be thrifty for family reasons.

[Gary Hill]

Can't access from the UK
It's behind a paywall

[Richard Parkin]

It is paywalled, not just for U.K., but you get several free reads a month — may have to make a free subscription for that. The sub for the basic digital version is a very reasonable three quid a month, maybe less for first time offer.

[Stan B.]

mani- When I was... (considerably) younger I once asked a visiting photographer at my community college photo class how he would respond if someone thought his photos... "boring." The instructor (somewhat understandably) nervously intervened at that point, obviously embarrassed at the arrogance (and ignorance) of my youthful query.

Yes, it's the very duty of youth to always challenge those in power- always. But make no doubt, there will be times down the road that you'll discover that that old goat was operating on a cross street you never knew existed, past an intersection you didn't see in your hurry to get somewhere already visited.

[Xf Mj]

Speaking of famous photographers, and also your earlier post on squares, Magnum Photos is having a "square print" sale but it ends real soon:

https://www.magnumphotos.com/shop/

If still going on (ends Saturday I think) you'll see a "Way for Escape" sale with several $100 framed 6x6" prints on offer.

Apologies if these sales go on all the time and I've only just become hep, late to some sorta print party.

[Phil]

I'll just second what Stan B said. I've been looking at Josef Koudelka photos for 35 years, since I was in my 20's. I've never seen anything boring with his name on it.

[Mike Ferron]

I do understand his reasoning. I have morphed from a scenic/ hodgepodge photographer to a urban/street photographer to my latest which is an intimate, small scene nature photographer. I very recently retired after 49 years in the workforce. Now my boy Buddy the Dog and I walk the thickly vegetated park trails that follow a brook. On these walks I look for that small something that catches my eye. Life is good.

[Dennis Ng]

Of course unless you are brave … or the others trust you not report people to the police or you are simplify police informer … that bad now here; I do not think street photograph is possibly in Hong Kong this day. It is a bit like Berlin Wall collapsed sort of, just east Germany taking over the west.

I guess that is what he meant of running. Not for people photography in studio … but in the street.

Having said that, I suspect that is not true as other than special case like Hong Kong and these days general worry of being photography just taking people in street is what life is. Some need running, some no longer can run, lots of option here.

Still general landscape Is quite different from certain kind of animal photography and macro, even if one stay in one place the light, the rain and especially if you have a stream … all changes over days and seasons. It is not another head of a lion or a butterfly (sorry and apology for those like these as I did for a while). If one stays like a street corner, one observe life in nature. For the land in landscape or luminous in landscape which is not exactly about life, still the changes there but I digress.

Still I like people photography more and it is about our human life. It may be a boring picture of family just interest me. Or just a woman walking in the street. Or major typhoon and the … there is life in all that.

Guess it is hard now. And will get harder and harder for an ordinary old guy here. Move to life in land may be an option. Or like others run … in fact if one has a family the advise is to run. But that is a different kind of running as the street and journalist photography.

Just too old to run like that, as my parents and grandparents did after Great Leap Forward. And the photography run, … not sure.

[I *think* he just meant running as in, you have to run around to get the views and angles you want as people are moving around. But he did have to leave his native country for a while and live as an exile, so that at least provides an alternative meaning of "running." --Mike]

[Luke]

Re: Magnum "Square Print" sale:

I see that almost none of theses images are square. Magnum photographers apparently reject this sort of artificial limitation. Only the paper is square.