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"Josef Koudelka: Next presents an intimate portrait of the life and work of one of photography's most renowned and celebrated artists. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of six years with Koudelka-as well as ongoing conversations with his friends, family, colleagues, and collaborators worldwide-writer, editor, and curator Melissa Harris independently reports and crafts a unique, in-depth, and revelatory biography. Josef Koudelka: Next is richly illustrated with hundreds of photographs, including many biographical and behind-the-scenes images from Koudelka's life, as well as iconic images from his work, from the 1950s to the present. The visual presentation is conceived in collaboration with Koudelka himself, as well as his longtime collaborator, Czech designer Aleés Najbrt"--
About the author
Melissa Harris is editor-at-large of Aperture and served as editor-in-chief of
Aperture magazine from 2000 to 2012. Harris teaches at New York University’s Photography and Imaging Department at Tisch, and occasionally at Yale University. She is a trustee of the John Cage Trust and author of
A Wild Life: A Visual Biography of Photographer Michael Nichols (Aperture, 2017).
Summary
The definitive and only authorized biography of Josef Koudelka—an intimate portrait of the life and work of one of photography’s most renowned and celebrated artists.
Throughout his more than sixty-year-long obsession with the medium, Josef Koudelka considers a remarkable range of photographic subjects—from his early theater work, to his seminal project on the Roma and his legendary coverage of the 1968 Soviet invasion of Prague, to the solitariness of exile and the often-devastating impact humans have had on the landscape. Josef Koudelka: Next embraces all of Koudelka’s projects and his evolution as an artist in the context of his life story and working process. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of almost a decade with Koudelka—as well as ongoing conversations with his friends, family, colleagues, and collaborators worldwide—this deftly told, richly illustrated biography offers an unprecedented glimpse into the mind of this notoriously private photographer. Writer, editor, and curator Melissa Harris has independently crafted a unique, in-depth, and revelatory personal history of both the man and his photography.
Josef Koudelka: Next is richly illustrated with hundreds of photographs, including many biographical and behind-the-scenes images from Koudelka’s life, as well as iconic images from his work, from the 1950s to the present. The visual presentation is conceived in collaboration with Koudelka himself, as well as his longtime collaborator, Czech designer Aleš Najbrt.
Copublished by Aperture and Magnum Foundation
Foreword
Collaborative opportunities with co-publisher Magnum Foundation
Gift and retail offering for collectors on this first biography of major figure of European modernism
Book program timed to launch at ParisPhoto in November 2023
Strategize on a key artist interview for major international press outlet such as New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, Financial Times, Le Monde, Die Zeit or Der Welt