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Invasion 68: Prague
In 1968 Josef Koudelka was thirty years old. He had committed himself to photography as a full-time career only recently, and had been chronicling the theater, and the lives of gypsies, but he had never photographed a news event. That all changed on the night of August 21 when the Soviet army invaded Czechoslovakia along with troops from four other Warsaw Pact countries in the morning hours. The occupation was the beginning of the end for the Czechoslovak reform movement known as the Prague Spring. That day, Koudelka was at the hub of the action, risking his life to capture the photographs now presented in a new book by Aperture. They have been rated among the most important in 21st-century photojournalism. A year after the invasion, Josef Koudelka’s negatives were smuggled out of Prague into the hands of Magnum, and published anonymously in The Sunday Times Magazine under the initials P P – Prague Photographer. Koudelka crouched on the roof of a building in Wenceslas Square, Prague, his camera lens trained on the street below. Thousands of Soviet troops rumbled past in tanks – the city was being invaded. Below him, houses and buses were ablaze, bullets were flying and the wounded cried out. Protesters chanted the name of their hero, the Czech president Alexander Dubcek. Some threw stones at the troops. Others pleaded with the soldiers, begging them to go home. One man simply stood before a tank, silently opened his jacket and defied the soldiers to shoot him in the chest. Snapping away, Koudelka almost didn’t notice the people waving and pointing at him, or the Russian soldiers shouting, assuming he was a sniper. Suddenly a group of Soviet soldiers charged into the building he was perching on and gave chase. He fled, his Leica swinging round his neck, scrambling and ducking over rooftops, through a window and down into the throng on the street. In 1969 the "anonymous Czech photographer" was presented with the Robert Capa gold medal for photographs requiring exceptional courage. It was feared that publishing Koudelka’s name could endanger his life. With Magnum to recommend him to the British authorities, he applied for a three-month working visa and fled to England in 1970, where he stayed for more than a decade. Since then he has traveled the world with his camera and little else. Book Discount If you want to order and would like to take advantage of the discount please use KOUDELKA as the Redemption Code during the checkout process. If you do not use this code we can not give a discount anymore once the ordering process is completed! Links
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Reader comments (13)
Qualitatively speaking i don't consider this particular work worth of a Koudelka.Ok, i can understand the reasons(ideological mostly)for the specific-if not a little bit suspicious,especially this time,time of another "invasion"- interest on these pictures,but a photographer must be mentioned for his highest achievements rather than his weakest moments.I do not doubt the quality of Koudelka,who after all is one of my absolute favourites.But did he ever think of repeating an analogous undertaking for another kind of invasion which tranformed Czech Republic in the brothel of Europe, mostly with the support of capitals coming from american pornography.Does Koudelka know that venereal diseases,hepatitis and HIV have reached soaring heights in his beloved fatherland?Is there place for his sensibility and photographic reflexes for this ongoing drama of a decent ,dignified and respectful people,the people of Czech Republic.
Comment posted by Nikos Roccos on August 22, 2008
Never forget!
Comment posted by Filippo Macchi on August 22, 2008
As I looked through these amazing, emotionally charged images, I couldn't help sadly pondering about how history seems to be repeating itself in Georgia...
Comment posted by Mason Resnick on August 22, 2008
wish i could see some more of the 10 mensioned photos up here !
i think they are great photos , a "plus" to number 6 of the sequence.
great.
Comment posted by nenousha on August 24, 2008
Re above Fuchs quote: ".....his Leica swinging around his neck...."!? Unlikely. Maybe a Zorki. Sean O'Hagan, in this week's Observer, tells us that Koudelka '..used a primitive Exakta camera', for the '68 Prague photographs that made him famous. Should we be more cautious with the Leica mythology?
Comment posted by Martin on August 25, 2008
Yeah, that thing about Leica is completely made up. JK was using an Exacta camera in those days. Regardless, I consider these series as one of the most important ones, even though not the top of his work, but definitely deserving it's place & publicity. Also, as Filippo Macchi mentioned, we should never forget! There are players in global politics who do not play by the rules they agreed on previously, and even more, they will misinterpret or break these rules whenever it suits them.
Comment posted by sn0wcrash on August 26, 2008
To make picture more informational: the phrase written on the bus on the first picture says "Go home" on russian.
To Mason Resnick: the history is not repeating itself in Georgia as there were no Georgian soldiers in Prague (or may be but not majority of these boys). As all well informed people know - Georgians started the was in South Ossetia. They stahted to kill ordinary ossetian people and Russia had to send soldiers to defend them as 90 percent of them got Russian citizenship.
Comment posted by A Chistoff on August 30, 2008
just looked at the new book 2 days ago....cannot wait to see the show when we're in town in October......after all these years having swum through those 10 or so images the world knows, it was so magical to look at all the pics and contact sheets....
cheers
running
b
Comment posted by bobblack on August 31, 2008
Interestingly it was in a Magnum statement that I first saw the mention of Koudelka supposedly having used a Leica in 68. All previous information regarding his cameras of that time were clear that it was an Exakta, which was probably not much more sophisticated than a Holga, and an old Rolliflex which hung round his neck on a piece of string. Considering the high quality of the images and their sharpness that would seem to put the lie to the Leica mythology propagated by Magnum. But why, if indeed some were made with a 6x6 Rolliflex, is everything in 35mm format? More fitting the truth to the myth?
Comment posted by nigel amies on September 2, 2008
I saw the exibition in Milan, the picture are great.
I really don't mind about cameras I belive that a nice eye could be the best weapon for every photographer.
Comment posted by Vittore Fotografo on September 3, 2008
just looked at the new book 2 days ago....cannot wait to see the show when we're in town in October
Comment posted by health on September 11, 2008
I have seen these images many times, bearing witness and the photographs are indeed touching. They also remind me of the power a photographic image can have, a story-telling strengh that somehow moves beyond “a good photograph” and “a good photographer”.
I don't think this ability to catch the time and certain vulnerability of time ought to be counted as a lesser thing then a perfectly shot image. Many other photographs by Koudelka are indeed much better if you count the aesthetic value only. But I think it would be wrong to make judgements out of only that perspective.
Comment posted by Jenny Maria on September 14, 2008
A while after the Koudelka's pics gained notoriety, his departure from Czechoslovakia and entering into the UK was organized. Good old cold war stuff. Try to get a citizen of the Czech Republic to obtain UK citizenship nowadays...
Comment posted by peter on September 19, 2008