INTERVIEW
n 2008, Gilad Baram was a third-year
photography student at the Academy
of Art in Jerusalem, when he got a
unique opportunity to work alongside
the world-famous photographer Josef
Koudelka. This came about thanks to
a project called This Place – thebrainchild of French photographer Frédéric
Brenner. His idea was to get 12 internationally
acclaimed photographers to explore the
complex nature of Israel and the West Bank,
as a place and metaphor. The impressive
line-up of 12 photographers who took part
in the project included Koudelka, Brenner,I
The Magnum Photos legend spent four years
documenting the landscapes of Israel and Palestine.
Steve Fairclough discovers more about the project
Josef
KoudelkaPhotographerBorn in Czechoslovakia
in 1938, Josef Koudelka’s
work came to prominence
in 1968 when he recorded
the military forces of the
Warsaw Pact as they
invaded Prague. The
pictures were smuggled
out of Prague to Magnum
Photos and published
in The Sunday Times
Magazine under the
initials ‘PP’ (Prague
Photographer), to protect
his safety. In 1969, he was
anonymously awarded
the Robert Capa Gold
Medal for the pictures.Koudelka sought asylum
in 1970 and shortly
afterwards joined
Magnum Photos. In 1975
he brought out his first
book, Gypsies, and in 1988
the book Exiles came out.
He has now had more
than a dozen books
of his work published,
including Invasion Prague
68 (2008) and La
Fabrique d’Exils (2017).Koudelka’s awards
have included the Prix
Nadar (1978), a Grand
Prix National de la
Photographie (1989),
a Grand Prix Cartier-
Bresson (1991) and the
Hasselblad Foundation
International Award in
Photography (1992).magnumphotos.comJosef
Koudelka
134 DIGITAL CAMERA^ MARCH 2020 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com
Josef^ Koudelka^ /MagnumPhotosGilad^ Baram