Timeless photography lessons from Josef Koudelka

[@johnhigginson5079]

Koudelka was the photographer that inspired me to take up photography as a profession. 35 years later, a short while ago I commented on a thread on Reddit about Koudelka, how I loved his work, but if I was honest with myself every time I saw an image of his it made me want to give up, quietly put my camera away and choose another way of life, his work is so far ahead of mine, in fact so far ahead of just about everyone's, someone answered my Reddit comment with 'never compare yourself to a genius' .. it helped.

[@nobodytoomusic]

Koudelka's phot of the "devil dog" was one of the first photographs I saw when I was younger that convinced me to be a street photographer. Koudelka is simply timeless!

[@TatianaHopper]

Agreed ! Thanks for watching 🙏🏻

[@LuciusAugust]

Few months ago I was chilling in the Parc de Sceaux for the first time, thinking "I've seen this place before" 😅

[@russellfishes]

When I need inspiration to take pictures or want to get excited about photography, I watch one of your videos.

[@TatianaHopper]

That’s amazing, thanks for the trust and for watching the channel!

[@richardrizzo_photography]

Excellent video Tatiana, Koudelka's work is magnificent!

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you so much for watching Rich! 🙏🏻

[@wernerhollander-j2i]

Love your definition of photographers in having the capacity to see the universal through a detail of what is to most, mundane...

[@artbraitman4290]

I have enjoyed his photos and books for decades. I loved your thoughtful, insightful vid!

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you so much 🙏🏻

[@ΙωαννηςΚαντζος-θ6ω]

J. Koudelka : Life's Photographer. Great.

[@howarddale2984]

Thank you so much for this video. I’d heard of Koudelka, but other than having seen a few of his photographs I didn’t know much about him. Your post inspired me to immediately order a couple of his photobooks. I also really like your KZbin channel. It’s refreshing to see a channel that focuses on photographers and the creative process rather than the endless gear reviews and tips videos (you know the ones I mean: “five tips for making your images better, “10 mistakes you need to avoid” etc) I’ve been following your channel for some time, but only now have plucked up the courage to comment.

[@TatianaHopper]

Hey Howard thank you so much for watching and commenting, appreciate your kind words and I’m glad you want to discover more of Koudelka’s work it’s truly amazing and hopefully it will continue to inspire me! Feel free to comment I always appreciate the feedback :) all the best!

Thanks!

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you!

[@declandebarra]

Yet another wonderful and beautifully considered video. Thank you so much. I always get excited when I see a T. Hopper thumbnail appear in me feed. Koudelka is my fave,

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you so much Declan! Appreciate the great feedback and thanks for keeping up with the channel 🙏🏻

[@MusicJunky3]

Another fabulous one Tatiana ! You really know how to put things together !

[@TatianaHopper]

Thanks so much 😊

[@linjicakonikon7666]

My 5 favorite photobooks: 1. EXILES by Josef Koudelka 2. SCOTTISH SYMPHONY by Michael Ruetz 3. IN ROMANIA by Gary Irving 4. FIVE DECADES by William Albert Allard 5. TREES by Barbara Bosworth.

[@GrobbingThistle0]

great video, really enjoyed your thoughtful perspective, makes me appreciate Koudelka's work all the more!

[@numbersix8919]

Thank you T. Hopper for wonderfully curating Koudelka for us!

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you for watching 🙏🏻

[@rvbsoundfactory]

Koudelka photo book about gypsies introduced me to the power of photography. Back in the day. Everything was just so perfect composition print quality just stunning. My top 5 favorite photographers. thanks for the reminder and the enlightenment.

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you for tuning in Richard! Indeed his work is amazing and I’m familiar with that book as well and love it!

[@tychomagneticanomaly]

Excellent work, as usual. I met him a couple of years back in Berlin and was surprised by his introverted personality. He reminded me a bit of John Ford. Two weeks ago I started on my biggest job of the year, and a lot of things went unexpectedly wrong. That disheartened me a bit, but after watching your vid yesterday I managed to take outstanding, the assignment and my belief in myself saving pictures last night. Thank you for the perfect inspiration when it was needed the most.

[@TatianaHopper]

That’s amazing I’m glad I was able to help out through the video! All the best to your project Thorsten!

[@offgrid-bound]

I think it was Josef Škvorecký, another great Czech chronicler of 20 century, who said “all exiles’ watch stop working the moment they leave” (not an exact phrase but something to that effect). I know from personal experience this to be true. I find it interesting that so many photographs in Koudelka’s book show a hand with watch, almost as if he was capturing that moment when you leave, and everything becomes only a memory.

[@daryljohnson9010]

Koudelka has been an encouragement to me since discovering his work and his means of accomplishing it several years ago. Thanks for bringing further attention to him.

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you for watching Daryl!

[@ASCMarco]

Tatiana, you are a light in this dark world!

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you so much!

[@DiggingForFacts]

Many thanks for this one. Exiles is the pride and joy of my (very) small collection of photo books and Koudelka's photography is a constant source of inspiration in terms of managing to to find my holy grail in photography: the ability to take something banale or average and make it into something with an almost otherworldly quality. For me, Exiles has a way of confronting me with the realisation of the transience of most of the comforts we take for granted.

[@TatianaHopper]

Agreed with your insights! Thank you so much for watching! 🙏🏻

[@john-bloss]

Tatiana, so another illuminating lesson. You bring so much thoughtful insight into these videos. Thank you.

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you so much Jim!

[@DavidEvenson]

Excellent video. I look forward to your videos every week - it’s becoming a routine. Always something new to learn.

[@TatianaHopper]

I appreciate that! Thanks for tuning in David!

[@JoeJoe4P]

Thank you for another very well done video! This is a book I think I may have to add to my collection. Stay safe!✌️

[@TatianaHopper]

Definitely! Thank you for watching Joe! 🙏🏻

[@OTuathaigh]

Excellent video Tatiana, I really enjoyed watching it. I will definitely check out Josef Koudelka’s work.

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you so much if you have time check out the other video I did on him here on the channel it’s titled learning photography with Josef Koudelka it will give you more insight :)

[@CatalinGulan]

Tatiana your movies and the way you are doing your own storytelling are simply great and we are simply thankful for being here and sharing with us all these beauties! A "letal" combination : Knowledge and Emotion! This is what I found here in your channel! ❤ No more words...

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you! Really appreciate your words 🙏🏻🙏🏻 all the best 🤍

[@Joseph_Greco]

Excellent video and great subject! Koudelka is awesome......SEEING is everything; seeing light, seeing the details, seeing the beatific vision.....God IS in the details. 👍🔥☮

[@TatianaHopper]

Seeing is the key word in this video I think thank you for watching Joseph! All the best :)

[@andrescanales4540]

I love this video like you have no idea. Thank you for making it!

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you so much Andres! Glad you enjoyed it :)

[@irishmaninflorida1608]

Thanks for introducing us to this photographer, Tatiana.

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you so much for watching 🙏🏻

[@vmatt]

Thabks so much for another Koudelka video, Tatiana. Exiles is the most moving book I have related to photography. I've had the privilege to hear stories about him. My mentor is great friends with him and has told me several stories of his visits photographing Greece. Thanks so much for this. I really do hope you get to do some work on some less known to the West great photographers. I had suggested Dayanita Singh in a previous video. I'll suggest Nikos Panagiotopoulos here.

[@TatianaHopper]

Hey Vittorio thank you so much I will check it out! I don’t remember the first name so I must’ve missed your comment or perhaps didn’t write down that name. Appreciate the suggestions and all the best!

[@vmatt]

@@TatianaHopper Dayanita Singh has published Myself, Moha Ahmed but it may not be KZbin friendly. House of Love may be more up your alley. Fascinating book. As for Panagiotopoulos he's famous here in Greece for a project of an asylum in the island of Leros.

[@TatianaHopper]

@@vmatt yes that’s always something I need to have in consideration being KZbin friendly! Thanks for the tips I liked the sound of the last project you described in particular :)

[@BobEstremera]

Wonderful job, as always. You are a great curator of photography's living past.

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you so much Bob!

[@yahoograbo]

Great video!!! I love this bird in the window in 6:30

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you for watching!

[@davidsharp3675]

Fab video and some good insight into Josefs brilliance.

[@TatianaHopper]

Many thanks!

[@jordaneel]

This was a great video!! I have Gypsies but I’m going to order Exiles right now. Your understanding of the book was very inspiring !

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you so much Sharon! I’m glad you enjoyed both the book and my thoughts :)

[@1jongreg]

I thoroughly enjoy all of your videos. I was hoping you would do on on Josef

[@TatianaHopper]

And I did ;)

[@seralegre]

you are delivering so many videos these past few months! gj

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you for watching! Will continue to upload :)

[@carlodemarchis]

Thanks for these videos.

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you for watching!

[@chilecayenne]

Hello Tatiana!! Great to see you again! I've seen some stuff about Koudelka....one thing I saw was that for a period of time, he was shooting almost exclusively 6x17 panoramic with a G617 medium format camera I think. A lot of stuff in Beruit. Anyway, I'm huge into panos.....if you do another one on Koudelka that might be an interesting part of his career to explore. Have a great day.... CC

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you so much for tuning in! And yes I’ll write it down :)

[@sfenwick]

Excellent. Thank you.

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you so much!

[@rostislavsheptykin7464]

Thank you!

[@bimurtyaganguli6442]

Loved the video. Koudelka is an all time favourite photographer of mine. I adore his works. Great presentation, maam. I have one lingering question though, if he never took up an assignment, and he used to travel from one place to another, not staying at one place for more than 3 months, how could he manage the money for this travel? Like he was always on a move, and he had no stable income, also was not selling any of his photos to magazine, then how did he manage this extensive travel throughout Europe ? :/ Moreover the cost of films, development, print @_@

[@nyurons]

The concept of seeing was also briefly mentioned in one of HCB’s documentaries. Recently rewatching this, I realized that I was mostly looking for good compositions rather than seeing/understanding the details of the subjects. Having minimal knowledge about Koudelka, I was intrigued by this “seeing’ also being covered in today’s video.

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you for watching if you have some time watch my other video on Koudelka it’s titled learning photography with Josef Koudelka and I go more in depth in his photography and I think (it was a while ago) but I talk about “seeing” in that one too :)

[@sixeightphotos]

Great video. Love his work. Would love to see a video or series on william albert allard. His book, Vanishing breed, is incredible. What he does with light is powerful.

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you Justin I think I heard that name before but I will have to look it up again! Cheers for the suggestion :)

[@cinedisidente8992]

Love your channel

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you 🙏🏻

[@veivoli]

Quite apart from the photos, of which I had seen a few before but was unaware of the photographer, great choice of music. A few minutes on KZbin will unearth a 16 minute clip featuring Bessie Smith singing this - with Louis Armstrong listed as a supporting musician! I believe it was written by W C Handy. So you have managed to combine two of my great loves in a single video!

[@TatianaHopper]

I think I know what clip you’re talking about I’m a big fan of Bessie Smith and there’s this amazing clip of her singing St Louis blues live and in colour I can’t remember how I found it but it’s worth it maybe if you haven’t found it search on KZbin for “Bessie smith St Louis blues colour or live”

[@veivoli]

@@TatianaHopper Yes, I've seen it. A bit off topic, but one of my kids borrowed a colorised version of Casablanca a while back. I immediately set the TV to show it in black and white, as it was meant to be! 🙂

[@TatianaHopper]

@@veivoli oh on that I agree! I don’t think the film would have the same impact if it was in colour after all the noir influences and lighting work better for B&W in my opinion!

[@dorukhanmercan]

Just found this video, just came across you as a photographer also, I like it.

[@Rudra0141]

Thank you.

[@TatianaHopper]

You're welcome!

[@photom3]

Despite his self-effacing demeanor he knew what to look at a where to point the camera. For me his biggest secret was going “all in” there was no plan B. Something many of us are not able to do, or are not willing to do. That said, you still have to have talent.

[@mid90s75]

Great video!

[@TatianaHopper]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@agatakerteszova3488]

Thank you for the video, last year a documentary movie about Koudelka came out, it’s called Crossing the same river. The director is accompanying Koudelka on one of his recent travels to Greece and we can learn more while following their creative process.

[@TatianaHopper]

I need to watch that one wasn’t aware of it! Thank you for your recommendation :)

[@vasilakiz]

it's in turkey not in Greece

[@harleycleanslate]

His work reminds me a bit of Gary Winogrand, I can't explain it but it seems somehow more 'sophisticated' that that of Winogrand. I enjoy them both.

[@borislebeau524]

I learned photography with this book.

[@gottanikoncamera]

I thoroughly enjoyed your take on this book. And I’m thankful you chose to shoot top-down instead of the skewed angles you sometimes use. :-) But I am a little perplexed by some of the images (those with the film frames and film codes/contact sheets). Were they Koudelka’s images or those of the people referenced on the left? Sorry, I can be a little slow; I missed what those people had to do with Koudelka?

[@DiggingForFacts]

It's part of a video made by Photo Elysée used as reference. It's mentioned in the description box, but for practicality's sake: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pWLEiZZ3h9x8mq8

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you for watching, the film frames were part of an exhibition put together on Koudelka’s work not long ago. The video is linked in the description and there’s also some written references the first time the footage pops up in the video :) thank you and please don’t be sorry it’s quite alright to ask, best !

[@gottanikoncamera]

Ah, gotcha! Thanks for the link. I mostly watch on Apple TV (such a great viewing experience to watch from my couch!) so I don’t see descriptions unless I grab my iPhone. Thank you.

[@outsandabouts]

Hi Tatiana, would it be any chance you could talk about Petros Koublis photography? Their photos seem worth reviewing.

[@TatianaHopper]

I’ll check out his photography hopefully in the future :)

[@outsandabouts]

@@TatianaHopper thank you so much!!

[@Alfonsden]

Excellent yet again Sister. Thanks for sharing. Keep shooting stay free and positive. #dennisramonestreet

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you and you too! 🙏🏻

[@rogerhyland8283]

An inspiring photographer

[@TatianaHopper]

Indeed!

[@matteoenricocattaneo]

As usual beautiful video. About storytelling, I think it is a concept that I see/hear often overused, and overall charged a lot in photography. I mean that for example, each shot we do should have inside a story...that I think it is almost impossible in 90% of the cases. And then, every photo needs to be a story? In a way, I think that social media paradoxically have ruined this concept. In fact if I look at "exiles" of Koudelka I can see a storytelling, if I scroll an IG profile, few times I see a story of some kind. Is this means that all other photos shouldn't be published? Absolutely not, just that we have to accept they don't tell a story, but maybe they give us emotions. And then as you point out Tatiana, we need to photograph firstly for ourselves. This is the reason I don't publish nothing on social media, I print 4-5 copies of the best shots I took during the year, to give to my parents, to me, and maybe a couple of friends...and I am happy so. (Vivian Maier for example was discovered after her death).

[@TatianaHopper]

You’re right and I like your approach yes we should photograph for ourselves first and foremost! And yes it’s very hard to tell a story or find a story in every photo and also we have to consider that different people see different things you can take a photo and tell me it’s about something but I see an entirely different scenario. So it’s all a very complex deal when it comes to storytelling :)

[@Wasp9513]

Could you do a review on Jason Ezkenszi?

[@bluur101]

"Wonderland, a fairy-tale of the Soviet monolith" might be an interesting book to look at ?

[@Wasp9513]

@@bluur101 Exactly. That trilogy is amazing !

[@mrbigg2u]

Need a copy... thx

[@LuneFlaneuse]

✨✨✨

[@Gadjodilo69]

autolike! thank u!

[@TatianaHopper]

🙏🏻

[@JerryAdam]

Thanks for the video! There can't be enough content about Koudelka and his outstanding work 😉 Btw., here's a link to an interview with Ian Berry where he briefly speaks about meeting Koudelka for the first time in Czechoslovakia: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f33KdYKmr7SrbJY

[@TatianaHopper]

Thank you Jerry!

[@gonzoexpress9885]

Jk's body of work, Gypsies, is an inspirational masterpiece; nigh on mythical in its pathos and beauty.

[@TatianaHopper]

Agreed 🙏🏻

[@lukeluke4043]

Funny how I always heard "the DEVIL is in the details" and never about god until now!

[@lukasglier]

really would recommend the book diaries by koudelka. ikd if it is available in english though. for me its one of the best book i own.