Josef KoudelkaBLACK TRIANGLE

Catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition Josef Koudelka: The Making of Landscape, at the Signet Library (Edinburgh) from 1-27 August 2017.

Produced by The WS Society In partnership with Magnum Photos In association with The Times Scotland

Part of the Edinburgh Art Festival 2017 programme

Koudelka continued with the industrial theme and a number of his projects focused on documenting the contemporary landscape through various commissions. One such commission was Lhoist, a global company based in Belgium specialising in open cast mining of lime. Over a period of twelve years Koudelka, photographed 5t different quarries in eleven countries. In order to facilitate access to the numerous sites around the world, the President of Lhoist issued a letter to his staff encouraging full support of Koudelka's work by saying 'he will show you what you do not see." Recently Koudelka took on the subject of the contested landscape of Israel and Palestine as part of the 2008 project This Place: Making Images, Breaking Images-Israel and the West Bank. Initiated by the photographer, Frédéric Brenner, it featured the work of twelve photographers, each of whom explored the complexity of the landscape and its people. For his part in the project, Koudelka focused solely on the wall that divides the two countries and specifically its impact on the physical landscape; his photographs not only appeared as part of This Place, but were also the focus for his own publication, Wall, issued in 2013.

In preparing for his publications Koudelka creates maquettes, small mock-up versions of the intended book. These objects are unique and encourage a constant engagement with, and rethinking of, the work as it is presented in accordion-style format. The images follow in a sequential order, but the concertina effect of the pages means that there is fluidity in juxtaposing certain images within the book sequence just simply by gathering up the folded pages. The exercise of turning the pages, folding the book, following the layout of the black-and-white photographs is one that he repeats over, never quite content to consider the project as static or permanent. It's as though the landscape images are more subject to change and interpretation, perhaps because the actual land is precariously fragile and forever changing through human intervention. For his forthcoming publication, Industries, Koudelka has once more created a unique maquette in anticipation of the finished book. He maintains that if a photographer has something to say he will make a book. Koudelka has much more to say on the subject of landscape. Time is too precious; for Koudelka the making of landscape is all about recording with his panoramic camera what will soon no longer exist.

Anne M. Lyden

Newspaper publication. loosing sheets. Large format. B&W photographs. Beautifully designed, with two half-pages assembled to create another image. Like New !