Welcome to another episode of our series “Books” and today we bring Josef Koudelka’s “The Exiles” to the table.I hope this video is helpful, thank you for watching & supporting the channel!
If you need to print your photos/books/albums check out ZNO & get 50% with THOPPER50:
Exiles by Josef Koudelka
Links to my work & socials
🌐
☕
Consider supporting the channel & accessing exclusive content
Binge watch “Street Photography” I
Binge watch “Books” I
Binge watch “White Noise” I
Binge watch “Silver Screen” I
Footage
Exhibition Josef Koudelka I Photo Elysée
Music
St. Louis Blues by Bessie Smith
Performed by Geary Allen
00:00 Intro
00:49 Exiles: A Background Note
03:38 A dominating Feeling I Storytelling
06:09 Photograph for yourself
08:50 God is in the Detail
10:30 Conclusions
Timeless photography lessons from Josef Koudelka
by Tatiana Hopper
March 2023
#josefkoudelka #photography #photographer #filmphotography #photobooks #photographychannel #photographydocumentary #documentaryphotography
Comments
30 responses to “Timeless photography lessons from Josef Koudelka”
Hello Tatiana!! Great to see you again!
I've seen some stuff about Koudelka….one thing I saw was that for a period of time, he was shooting almost exclusively 6×17 panoramic with a G617 medium format camera I think.
A lot of stuff in Beruit. Anyway, I'm huge into panos…..if you do another one on Koudelka that might be an interesting part of his career to explore.
Have a great day….
CC
Wonderful job, as always. You are a great curator of photography's living past.
Thanks for introducing us to this photographer, Tatiana.
An inspiring photographer
I thoroughly enjoyed your take on this book. And I’m thankful you chose to shoot top-down instead of the skewed angles you sometimes use. 🙂 But I am a little perplexed by some of the images (those with the film frames and film codes/contact sheets). Were they Koudelka’s images or those of the people referenced on the left? Sorry, I can be a little slow; I missed what those people had to do with Koudelka?
Tatiana your movies and the way you are doing your own storytelling are simply great and we are simply thankful for being here and sharing with us all these beauties! A "letal" combination : Knowledge and Emotion! This is what I found here in your channel! ❤ No more words…
As usual beautiful video. About storytelling, I think it is a concept that I see/hear often overused, and overall charged a lot in photography. I mean that for example, each shot we do should have inside a story…that I think it is almost impossible in 90% of the cases. And then, every photo needs to be a story? In a way, I think that social media paradoxically have ruined this concept. In fact if I look at "exiles" of Koudelka I can see a storytelling, if I scroll an IG profile, few times I see a story of some kind. Is this means that all other photos shouldn't be published? Absolutely not, just that we have to accept they don't tell a story, but maybe they give us emotions. And then as you point out Tatiana, we need to photograph firstly for ourselves. This is the reason I don't publish nothing on social media, I print 4-5 copies of the best shots I took during the year, to give to my parents, to me, and maybe a couple of friends…and I am happy so. (Vivian Maier for example was discovered after her death).
Excellent video Tatiana, Koudelka's work is magnificent!
Tatiana, so another illuminating lesson. You bring so much thoughtful insight into these videos. Thank you.
Thank you.
Excellent video Tatiana, I really enjoyed watching it. I will definitely check out Josef Koudelka’s work.
This is a very interesting video for me, but more of that later in the comment.
First of all, great video, well documented, good research, good sample shots, the quality we used to get from you and that is where you excel.
About the photographs in a photography perspective, solid shots, all in the style (think luminosity – zone) makes it very coherent to look at.
Also the subjects positioned in the frames are of excellent choice and quality.
Now for the "coup de poing" I don't like these photos at all, from a very subjective point of view called "my taste" .
And that is very strange cause from a photograph point of view I have totally no comment, but these shots give me the shivers, the subjects give me a counteraction and make me uncomfortable to look at them. (and believe me I have seen my fair share of poverty and war photos). This all is strengthened by the already praised coherent looks.
I find this very intriguing cause this happens rarely to me and proves again that "beauty" is very subjective and is not equal to "quality" cause there is a lot of in these shots.
Thanks for sharing !!!
Tatiana, you are a light in this dark world!
Quite apart from the photos, of which I had seen a few before but was unaware of the photographer, great choice of music. A few minutes on YouTube will unearth a 16 minute clip featuring Bessie Smith singing this – with Louis Armstrong listed as a supporting musician! I believe it was written by W C Handy.
So you have managed to combine two of my great loves in a single video!
Great video. Love his work. Would love to see a video or series on william albert allard. His book, Vanishing breed, is incredible. What he does with light is powerful.
Jk's body of work, Gypsies, is an inspirational masterpiece; nigh on mythical in its pathos and beauty.
I thoroughly enjoy all of your videos. I was hoping you would do on on Josef
Koudelka photo book about gypsies introduced me to the power of photography. Back in the day. Everything was just so perfect composition print quality just stunning. My top 5 favorite photographers. thanks for the reminder and the enlightenment.
Excellent video and great subject! Koudelka is awesome……SEEING is everything; seeing light, seeing the details, seeing the beatific vision…..God IS in the details. 👍🔥☮
Thank you so much for this video. I’d heard of Koudelka, but other than having seen a few of his photographs I didn’t know much about him. Your post inspired me to immediately order a couple of his photobooks. I also really like your YouTube channel. It’s refreshing to see a channel that focuses on photographers and the creative process rather than the endless gear reviews and tips videos (you know the ones I mean: “five tips for making your images better, “10 mistakes you need to avoid” etc) I’ve been following your channel for some time, but only now have plucked up the courage to comment.
Excellent video. I look forward to your videos every week – it’s becoming a routine. Always something new to learn.
The concept of seeing was also briefly mentioned in one of HCB’s documentaries. Recently rewatching this, I realized that I was mostly looking for good compositions rather than seeing/understanding the details of the subjects. Having minimal knowledge about Koudelka, I was intrigued by this “seeing’ also being covered in today’s video.
Thanks for the video! There can't be enough content about Koudelka and his outstanding work 😉
Btw., here's a link to an interview with Ian Berry where he briefly speaks about meeting Koudelka for the first time in Czechoslovakia: https://youtu.be/ILgDOpzOx64?t=1091
Yet another wonderful and beautifully considered video. Thank you so much. I always get excited when I see a T. Hopper thumbnail appear in me feed. Koudelka is my fave,
you are delivering so many videos these past few months! gj
Thank you for the video, last year a documentary movie about Koudelka came out, it’s called Crossing the same river. The director is accompanying Koudelka on one of his recent travels to Greece and we can learn more while following their creative process.
Koudelka's phot of the "devil dog" was one of the first photographs I saw when I was younger that convinced me to be a street photographer. Koudelka is simply timeless!
Thabks so much for another Koudelka video, Tatiana. Exiles is the most moving book I have related to photography.
I've had the privilege to hear stories about him. My mentor is great friends with him and has told me several stories of his visits photographing Greece. Thanks so much for this.
I really do hope you get to do some work on some less known to the West great photographers. I had suggested Dayanita Singh in a previous video. I'll suggest Nikos Panagiotopoulos here.
Great video!
Thank you for another very well done video! This is a book I think I may have to add to my collection. Stay safe!✌️