Josef Sudek
Encyclopedia
Josef Sudek was a Czech
photographer, best known for his photographs of Prague
.
Originally a bookbinder. During The First World War he was drafted into Austro-Hungarian Army
. In 1915 and served on the Italian Front until he was wounded in the right arm in 1916. Although he had no experience with photography and was one-handed due to his amputation, he was given a camera. After the war he studied photography for two years in Prague
under Jaromir Funke
. His Army disability pension gave him leeway to make art, and he worked during the 1920s in the romantic Pictorialist
style. Always pushing at the boundaries, a local camera club expelled him for arguing about the need to move forwards from 'painterly' photography. Sudek then founded the progressive Czech Photographic Society in 1924. Despite only having one arm, he used large, bulky cameras with the aid of assistants.
Sudek's photography is sometimes said to be modernist
. But this is only true of a couple of years in the 1930s, during which he undertook commercial photography and thus worked "in the style of the times". Primarily, his personal photography is neo-romantic
.
His early work included many series of light falling in the interior of St. Vitus cathederal. During and after World War II Sudek created haunting night-scapes and panoramas of Prague, photographed the wooded landscape of Bohemia
, and the window-glass that led to his garden (the famous The Window of My Atelier series). He went on to photograph the crowded interior of his studio (the Labyrinths series).
His first Western show was at George Eastman House
in 1974 and he published 16 books during his life.
Known as the "Poet of Prague", Sudek never married, and was a shy, retiring person. He never appeared at his exhibit openings and few people appear in his photographs. Despite the privations of the war and Communism, he kept a renowned record collection of classical music.
in Prague Pictures Portraits of a City, introduces the reader to the city through the photographic lens of Joseph Sudek. Banville relates how he became enlisted to smuggle Sudek's photographs to the United States and through his tale and the story of Josef Sudek reports the history of Prague
in its gravity and melancholy torn by war and oppression. He re-creates the anxiety that must have faced the photographer in a city where landscape photography could be a mortal offense. Interestingly the book's cover is a Josef Sudek photograph of a one-armed mannequin lying in wildflowers with the one remaining arm reaching skyward. More recently, Josef Sudek was used as a symbolic presence in Howard Norman's novel Devotion. The protagonist, David Kozol, was a photographer and mentored under Sudek. David Kozol remarks on the melancholy that pervaded Josef Sudek's work and a similar melancholy has settled through the novel. Sudek figures symbolically in the novel; David Kozol's mother in law worked as a book binder and it was through apprenticeship to a book binder that Josef Sudek became interested in photography. The characters seem to be symbolically injured or emotionally broken like the one armed Sudek and visual imagery figures prominently as should a work inspired by Josef Sudek.
In 2006 the Dutch poet Hans Tentije published a bundle containing the poem: 'Met Josef Sudek op weg door Praag', 'On my way through Prague with Josef Sudek'. In nine parts the poet 'helps' Sudek with his photography.
Josef Sudek befriended a fellow amateur after his service named Jaromir Funke. He studied photography under professor Karl Novak at the School of Graphic Arts.
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
photographer, best known for his photographs of Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
.
Originally a bookbinder. During The First World War he was drafted into Austro-Hungarian Army
Austro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint army , the Austrian Landwehr , and the Hungarian Honvédség .In the wake of fighting between the...
. In 1915 and served on the Italian Front until he was wounded in the right arm in 1916. Although he had no experience with photography and was one-handed due to his amputation, he was given a camera. After the war he studied photography for two years in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
under Jaromir Funke
Jaromír Funke
Jaromír Funke was a Czech photographer.Funke was a leading figure in Czech photography in the 1920s and 30s. In 1924 he, Josef Sudek and Adolf Schneeberger founded the Czech Photographic Society...
. His Army disability pension gave him leeway to make art, and he worked during the 1920s in the romantic Pictorialist
Pictorialism
Pictorialism is the name given to a photographic movement in vogue from around 1885 following the widespread introduction of the dry-plate process. It reached its height in the early years of the 20th century, and declined rapidly after 1914 after the widespread emergence of Modernism...
style. Always pushing at the boundaries, a local camera club expelled him for arguing about the need to move forwards from 'painterly' photography. Sudek then founded the progressive Czech Photographic Society in 1924. Despite only having one arm, he used large, bulky cameras with the aid of assistants.
Sudek's photography is sometimes said to be modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
. But this is only true of a couple of years in the 1930s, during which he undertook commercial photography and thus worked "in the style of the times". Primarily, his personal photography is neo-romantic
Neo-romanticism
The term neo-romanticism is used to cover a variety of movements in music, painting and architecture. It has been used with reference to very late 19th century and early 20th century composers such as Gustav Mahler particularly by Carl Dahlhaus who uses it as synonymous with late Romanticism...
.
His early work included many series of light falling in the interior of St. Vitus cathederal. During and after World War II Sudek created haunting night-scapes and panoramas of Prague, photographed the wooded landscape of Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, and the window-glass that led to his garden (the famous The Window of My Atelier series). He went on to photograph the crowded interior of his studio (the Labyrinths series).
His first Western show was at George Eastman House
George Eastman House
The George Eastman House is the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in Rochester, New York, USA. World-renowned for its photograph and motion picture archives, the museum is also a leader in film preservation and...
in 1974 and he published 16 books during his life.
Known as the "Poet of Prague", Sudek never married, and was a shy, retiring person. He never appeared at his exhibit openings and few people appear in his photographs. Despite the privations of the war and Communism, he kept a renowned record collection of classical music.
Sudek in Literature
In addition to conventional biographies of Josef Sudek, John BanvilleJohn Banville
John Banville is an Irish novelist and screenwriter.Banville's breakthrough novel The Book of Evidence was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and won the Guinness Peat Aviation award. His eighteenth novel, The Sea, won the Man Booker Prize in 2005. He was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize in 2011...
in Prague Pictures Portraits of a City, introduces the reader to the city through the photographic lens of Joseph Sudek. Banville relates how he became enlisted to smuggle Sudek's photographs to the United States and through his tale and the story of Josef Sudek reports the history of Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
in its gravity and melancholy torn by war and oppression. He re-creates the anxiety that must have faced the photographer in a city where landscape photography could be a mortal offense. Interestingly the book's cover is a Josef Sudek photograph of a one-armed mannequin lying in wildflowers with the one remaining arm reaching skyward. More recently, Josef Sudek was used as a symbolic presence in Howard Norman's novel Devotion. The protagonist, David Kozol, was a photographer and mentored under Sudek. David Kozol remarks on the melancholy that pervaded Josef Sudek's work and a similar melancholy has settled through the novel. Sudek figures symbolically in the novel; David Kozol's mother in law worked as a book binder and it was through apprenticeship to a book binder that Josef Sudek became interested in photography. The characters seem to be symbolically injured or emotionally broken like the one armed Sudek and visual imagery figures prominently as should a work inspired by Josef Sudek.
In 2006 the Dutch poet Hans Tentije published a bundle containing the poem: 'Met Josef Sudek op weg door Praag', 'On my way through Prague with Josef Sudek'. In nine parts the poet 'helps' Sudek with his photography.
See also
- Josef Sudek GalleryJosef Sudek GalleryThe Josef Sudek Gallery is situated near Hradčany in Prague, in a house, where Josef Sudek lived from 1959 until his death. Part of his photographic output was transferred to the MDA in Prague in the years 1978 - 1988. Since 1989 the MDA in Prague has also been administering the artist’s flat,...
- An EDIT in the description.
Josef Sudek befriended a fellow amateur after his service named Jaromir Funke. He studied photography under professor Karl Novak at the School of Graphic Arts.
External links
- Josef Sudek Studio (Ateliér Josefa Sudka). It manages the collection of the most famous Czech photographer, Josef Sudek, and also operates the gallery bearing his name, the Josef Sudek Studio, on Újezd street, Prague.
- Creative Camera article, 1980, with photos of Sudek himself
- Josef Sudek: A View of a Private World: Detailed Biography and Selection of 28 Photographs
- 'Odyssey To Sudek: Meeting and Photographing Josef Sudek, 1975', with photos.