Josef Sudek

Anna Fárová

the legacy of a deeper vision

Vojtěch Lahoda

Czech photographer Josef Sudek, who is best known for his moody, Romantic shots of still lifes and street scenes, was an influential advertising pioneer. Though this commercial aspect of his oeuvre is often overlooked, he collaborated with designer Ladislav Sutnar and architect Otto Rothmayer to create striking ads that rival the work of better-known contemporaries. This aspect of his career was short lived, however. The nationalization of privately owned businesses in Czechoslovakia at the end of the Second World War, coupled with the Communist takeover of 1948, made advertising largely superfluous. In this volume, Sudek's striking commercial portfolio is presented for the first time. The book includes an introduction by Czech Modern art historian Vojtech Lahoda, as well as a complete bibliography. In 1978, Sonja Bullaty-a former student of Sudek's-edited the first monograph of his work, which firmly established his reputation as one of the great photographers of the twentieth century. That volume was unrivaled prior to the publication of this monograph, which, in concert with two other concurrently published books, creates the most extensive compilation of Sudek's work to date.

The Advertising Photographs

Ancient Forest of the Beskids

A biographical profile of the Czechoslovakian photographer accompanies a collection of his photographs portraying his life, work, and views of Prague

Poet of Prague

The series of photographs that Joseph Sudek created in the Mionsí Forest of Morovia's Beskid Mountains is perhaps the most classically Romantic and visually stunning body of work ever made by this important Czech photographer. In the late 1920s, while shooting the interior of Prague's iconic Cathedral of St. Vitus during its final phase of completion, Sudek learned a great deal about light. Years later, alone, deep in the virgin forest, he lay in wait for the light that he knew would lend the ancient trees their ghostly aspect--finding graceful compositions in isolated wilderness. Photography historian Antonín Dufek penned the introduction to this volume, which is the first to present such a comprehensive set of Sudek's photographs of the Mionsí Forest, the ruins surrounding Hukvaldy castle and the foothills of the Beskids. Josef Sudek, born in 1896 in Kolín, was a bookbinder and amateur photographer for several years before studying at the State School of Graphic Arts with Karel Novak. Along with a handful of other young Modernists, he founded the Czech Photographic Society in 1924. While maintaining a successful commercial career, Sudek nurtured a lifelong, Romantic fascination with light and mood. He died at the age of 80 in 1976.

Mionší Forest

"Portraits, the second volume of the Torst series Josef Sudek: Works includes 86 carefully selected, superbly printed, color photos by the great Czech photographer Josef Sudek, as well as a complete bibliography and an interview with Jan Rezac, an editor of Czech art books, who greatly assisted in getting the first Sudek monograph published and became a friend of Sudek's." --Book Jacket.

Josef Sudek

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