Reconnaissance Wales

Reconnaissance Wales by Josef Koudelka. First edition (1998). First impression hardback in fine condition. No markings, binding firm, pages clean. Please see pictures. PayPal accepted, any questions please get in touch.

About Reconnaissance Wales

From the essay by Derrick Price: "From the early 1980s Josef Koudelka was traversing the world in search of man-made and industrial landscapes which personified our uneasy relationship with nature. Memorable projects (as of 1998) include two major bodies of work in France...photographing the remnants of the Berlin Wall in 1990; the war-torn centre of Beirut in 1992; and after he was able to return to Czechoslovakia from exile, he started to photograph one of the most devastated landscapes in Europe, commonly known as the Black Triangle, an area which borders the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. In 1994 thirty-four large panoramic photographs were published in an accompanying book of the same name, which reveal a fractured, littered, torn land which contains villages that have been shattered by the rapacity of extractive industry. To travel to Cardiff and South Wales to record the aftermath of industry on this landscape was clearly a natural extension for Koudleka's photographic practice; as was the employment of the epic panoramic format which he had developed and refined so successfully from the mid-1980s...

About Josef Koudelka

Josef Koudelka (b. 1938) is a Czech-born French itinerant photographer. Firstly, he is known for his seminal photo-books about the gypsies in Eastern Europe, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. As well as the Black Triangle, a region of environmental devastation. Consequently, the black and white images in these photo-books represent key moments in human history. Henceforth they afford us the opportunity to learn from the experiences of alienation, conflict, despair, waste, loss, and departure. Furthermore, he uses photography to distil and visualize human values that have shaped our current human condition.

Related Links

More books by Josef Koudelka here.

More books by Ffotogallery / Cardiff Bay here.