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Prague 1968 40th Anniversary, Koudelka at 70
This last Thursday, August the 21st, was the 40th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Jim Johnson over at (Notes On) Politics, Theory and Photography had a couple good posts on how Magnum, Aperture and some of the general media have addressed the anniversary. Most interesting is perhaps Sean O'Hagan's profile on Josef Koudelka, recently published on the Guardian UK's website.
In 1969, a year after Russian tanks rolled into Prague, Josef Koudelka visited London with a Czech theatre group. One Sunday morning he was walking out of his hotel near the Aldwych Theatre when he saw some members of the theatre group perusing a copy of the Sunday Times magazine. As he passed, he saw to his surprise that they were looking at his own extraordinary photographs of that Russian invasion and the spontaneous street protests it provoked. The same photos have since become the definitive pictorial record of a pivotal event in 20th century history...
The article goes on to shed much light on some of the lesser-known chapters in the legendary Czech photographer's personal and professional history. It is well worth the read.
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