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Josef KoudelkaCzech, born 1939
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Josef Koudelka has spent as much as possible of his life as a photographer making pictures of the Romani (Gypsies) of Eastern Europe. He has done this not because he was asked to, or because he thought that the world would be grateful, but because he has found the subject inexhaustibly fascinating, and perhaps also because Romani seem an endangered species, unlikely to survive much longer in Eastern Europe or elsewhere.
Although many of Koudelka's pictures contain information concerning the specific daily details of Romani life, such anthropological data does not seem their real point. They seem instead to aim at a visual distillation of a pattern of human values: a pattern that involves theater, large gestures, brave style, precious camaraderie, and bitter loneliness. The pattern and texture of his pictures form the silent equivalent of an epic drama.
The picture reproduced here is atypical in that its subject matter is of extraordinary narrative interest, but it shares with the rest of Koudelka's work a sense of myth and a rough-textured lyricism consonant with the rhythms of ancient ballads.
The young man in the photograph has been found guilty of murder, and is being led to the place of his execution. The officials that accompany him are not visible in the picture; he appears alone even in body as he advances toward the place. The handcuffs have compressed his silhouette to the shape to the shape of a simple wooden coffin. The track of a truck tire in the earth, like a rope from his neck, leads him forward. Within the tilted frame his body falls backward, as in recognition of the terror.
In the background the village fulfills its role as witness. Policemen keep the schoolchildren and a scattering of adults at the proper distance. The higher officers pace the ground, carrying nothing. The soldier at the left aims his folding camera, ready to record the event.
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Atget Library
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new !
Josef Koudelka
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