Josef Koudelka

For years, I've said that the photographer I would most like to meet in person is Josef Koudelka. Last Wednesday, I finally had the chance, when he spoke at the Aperture Gallery in Chelsea, and signed copies of his new monograph, Koudelka. Needless to say, the room was packed to overflowing, with a lot of Magnum photographers sitting in the front rows. From where I was, I could just barely see and hear, but still, it was pretty great. Max Pasion has made an excellent mp3 recording of Koudelka's talk available on his site (in case you're listening to it and wondering, the moderator is photography critic Vicki Goldberg.) Warning--the brief audience question-and-answer session at the end is more than a little disappointing--I was hoping that people would ask better questions, instead of "have you ever done color photography?" (Yes, I have a follow up question for Mr. Koudelka: what do you think about shooting digital?) If I had been a little closer, and a little bolder, I would have asked him to talk a little more about his editing process, and the ways in which he teaches himself through rigorously editing his contact sheets, which I found really interesting. Afterwards, the booksigning line was endless-- and I just had enough time to thank him for autographing my book.

Two friends, and two exhibits at the U.N.

Last Wednesday, I went to the United Nations for the opening of a photography exhibit called "Enduring Fear," in conjunction with International Mine Awareness Day, and also to see James Nachtwey's amazing exhibition, "A World Free of TB." Surely enough, I ran into Christoph Bangert and Chiho Kitajima, two old friends I hadn't seen in a while. I had brought my camera along, hoping to take a picture or two to update the blog with, and they were kind enough to volunteer to help out with that! I wrote about Christoph's first book, Travel Notes, in an earlier post. He's now working hard putting together a second book on Iraq. Two books in one year. Bit of an overachiever, that one.

Last week was quite the week for documentary photography--the following night, Josef Koudelka gave a presentation and signed books at Aperture Gallery. More about that soon.

back on the street with the Ansco Pix Panoramic