Jan Saudek - Photographer

[Multitudes]

I thought it was time to start a thread on one of the most celebrated Czech photographers and, for me, undoubtable one of the most interesting contemporary photographers still producing work ...

He is not a fashion photographer, but I think his work raises a lot of questions, especially in relation the body and the body image, which is important in the context of fashion, so here we go ...

JAN SAUDEK
Czech photographer

1935: born in Prague 13.5.1935

1950: he gets his first camera KODAK BABY Brownie – first photographic Attempts

1952: apprenticed to a photographer, he worked as a printing shop worker until 1983

1959: he uses „real“ camera Flexaret 6x6, he is also drawing and painting

1963: for ever influenced by the catalogue of the magnificent photographic exhibition „Family of Man“ (Edward Steichen)
1972: he finds his typical WALL composition, which became a sort of projection screen for his figural scenes.

1981: appears his first monograph „Il teatro de la vita“ in Milano

1983: free-lance photographer – he devotes himself fully to his own work

1990: bearer of the French title „Le Chevalier des Arts and Letters“ (Knight of Art and Literature), as the first Czech at all
French film director Jerome de Missolz makes a film about him „Jan Saudek – Czech photographer“

2005: appears his 14., biggest, monograph „SAUDEK“ (published by Slovart, Praha), accompanied by wide retrospective Exhibition in Prague

Jan Saudek is nowadays the most renowned Czech photographer in the world. He has had over 400 one-man shows held at. His photographs are included in the most important world collections.

themuchagallery.cz


Jan Saudek is distinctive and original, his work is not part of any genre or movement. He cannot be compared to anyone and there is no way to classify him. His controversial work daringly plunges into human emotions, drives, passions, consciousness as well as the subconscious, has the integrity of great artists, including style, view point, and expression.

His photographs moves from emotionally strong celebrations of the family - the apotheosis of womanhood, manhood, motherhood, fatherhood, childhood, and the lover. Saudek was fascinated by the metamorphosis of adolescence, attracted by the questions of birth and death, and the dimensions of love and human decency. In his photographs, ecstatic emotions were blended with pathos and subtle humor. He was creating the symbols of family, which are inseparable.

To a duality of emotions entered his pictures - the relationship between love and hate, sincerity and falsehood, beauty and ugliness, youth and old age. These antithetic elements created dramatic tension and at the same time, were mutually attracting and built up new meanings. Irony or even cynicism permeated the relationship between woman and man. True, even by aggressiveness and - fatality. It was a game, a fight to take control over the other one. These were stories of love and ruin, sometimes even tragic. During that period, the eroticism of his photographs was gaining intensity.

He delves into carnality, aggressive animalism to perversity, and even to a certain extent, masochism. However, Saudek's obsession with the body-any body, including a very old, fat and misshapen one - is not guided by the fashionable aesthetics of loathsomeness. On the contrary, it is filled with a hedonism that are even joyful and erotic. The tension between the violence, atrocity, sexuality and creativity of the images gives perhaps shocking, yet emotionally very impressive conclusions to Saudek's pictures. He portrayes the part of humans in their fatal contradiction of being.

The whole of Saudek's work is very intimate and he is quite easily vulnerable to it himself. He is constantly taking chances that the viewer starts laughing or becomes angry - be it due to embarrassment, stuffiness or misunderstanding. But whether his photographs deal with most tender emotions or the questionable sides of human being, as a whole, they are a massive celebration of humanness. And it is this very original, provocative adoration of manhood - to which anything human is not strange - that makes Jan Saudek a unique character in contemporary photography.


His Early work ...

My Very First Photograph, 1953

Hey, Joe!, 1959

Dawn No. 1, 1959

The Bond of Love No. 1, 1960

saudek.com

[MulletProof]

yesyes.

[multi, i just discovered you too use invisible mode ]

[Multitudes]

Continued ...

Zdena, 1962

First Steps, 1963

The Shelter, 1963

Those Days of the Sixties, 1965

saudek.com

[Multitudes]

Originally Posted by MulletProof

yesyes.

[multi, im just discovered you too use invisible mode ]

Ummm! ... yes ... thank you for inspiring me to do this thread ...

I'm wondering if the mods can see if you're online even though you use invisble mode?!!! ...

...

[MulletProof]

no, we cant, it kills me.

I'm so happy your started the thread, now we're two and let's expect more on board.
it's too early in the morning for me to elaborate why i like his work. but i'll be backkkk.!

[Multitudes]

...

Two is better than one ... So I will expect you back, since you're also the cause of such atrocity as a Saudek thread ...

Life, 1966

7 AM, 1968

Fate Descends towards the River Leading Two Innocent Children, 1970

Ten Years in the Life of Marketa, 1970-1980

saudek.com

[Multitudes]

Cage, 1970

Hungry For Your Touch, 1971

Pieta No. 1, 1971

Marie No. 142, 1972

saudek.com

[Multitudes]

What's-her-name Girl, 1973

Lágrimas Negras (Black Tears), 1973

120 km/hr, 1974

The Love Story, 1974

saudek.com

[cutxpaste]

lovely stuff, multi

[Multitudes]

Yes Indeed Cutxpaste, it is lovely photography ...

Come, Morning! Come and Bring Me a Diamond Ring, Bring Me a Prince, Glory, Fame, and Wealth - I Don't Want Anything More..., 1975

Which Star Is Mine?, 1975

Cathy's Clown, 1975

The Jewish Cemetary, 1975

saudek.com

[Multitudes]

Can it be, there is only three people here who can see the briliance of Saudek?!!! ...

Elusive Dream, 1976

The Loneliness, 1977

Pavla Poses for The First and Last Time, 1977

Zuzanka's Night Window, 1979

Saudek.com

[Estella*]

well, well, i've been quietly observing
and indeed i have to admit that while i certainly see an appeal in his aesthetic and subjects there is also something i personally find a bit off-putting in his work and i can't quite put my finger on it. maybe it's the mixture of romantic visions, subtle pornography and seemingly disturbing things ... i somehow find it too sweet as if he were trying to feed it to us with a spoon?

thanks for the thread anyway.
and you wouldn't believe how many replies most of my threads have
(about three)

[MulletProof]

yeah, it's the Behind the Lens section, mads. always quiet as a worshipping temple.

[Estella*]

but here i come and play drums and he doesn't even hear

[sanrio]

i'm not his biggest fan but i have to admit that i'm impressed...very much by his early work...amazing indeed... thank you multi...