Josef Koudelka: Next: A Visual Biography by Melissa Harris

The definitive and only authorized biography of Josef Koudelkaan intimate portrait of the life and work of one of photographys most renowned and celebrated artists. Throughout his more than sixty-year-long obsession with the medium, Josef Koudelka considers a remarkable range of photographic subjectsfrom his early theater work, to his seminal project on the Roma and his legendary coverage of the 1968 Soviet invasion of Prague, to the solitariness of exile and the often-devastating impact humans have had on the landscape. Josef Koudelka: Next embraces all of Koudelkas projects and his evolution as an artist in the context of his life story and working process. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of almost a decade with Koudelkaas well as ongoing conversations with his friends, family, colleagues, and collaborators worldwidethis deftly told, richly illustrated biography offers an unprecedented glimpse into the mind of this notoriously private photographer. Writer, editor, and curator Melissa Harris has independently crafted a unique, in-depth, and revelatory personal history of both the man and his photography. Josef Koudelka: Next is richly illustrated with hundreds of photographs, including many biographical and behind-the-scenes images from Koudelkas life, as well as iconic images from his work, from the 1950s to the present. The visual presentation is conceived in collaboration with Koudelka himself, as well as his longtime collaborator, Czech designer Ale Najbrt. Copublished by Aperture and Magnum Foundation