Biography provided by Focal press
 
Koudelka's graphic black and white images deal with those on the fringes of society. His formalized theatrical organization of reality looks at the daily community rituals of gypsies and exiles. His images of the invasion of Prague dramatically synthesized the terror and freedom of being isolated. His panoramic views search for a reprieve within a derelict landscape, where our own bleak despair has ruined nature's pleasures. Koudelka's prints utilize deep, dark black tones to continually portray the mental and physical conundrums and world-weariness of being a refugee.
 
(Author: RH)
 
Michael Peres (Editor-in-Chief), 2007, Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, 4th edition, (Focal Press) [ISBN-10: 0240807405, ISBN-13: 978-0240807409] (Used with permission)
 
Approved biography
Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum (London, UK)
 
Josef Koudelka sprang to fame - as Photographer X - for his images of the Russian invasion of his native Czechoslovakia in 1968. Before and since then, Koudelka has spent many years photographing gypsies; matching his lifestyle to theirs, travelling and living rough with them. From 1986 he also made very different images with a panoramic camera, depicting urban and rural landscapes devoid of people to reveal the impact of industrialisation. Other projects have included photographing the construction of the Channel Tunnel and the industrial pollution in Czechoslovakia.
 
This biography is courtesy and copyright of the Victoria & Albert Museum and is included here with permission.
 
Wikipedia
 
Josef Koudelka (born 10 January 1938) is a Czech-French photographer. He is a member of Magnum Photos and has won awards such as the Prix Nadar (1978), a Grand Prix National de la Photographie (1989), a Grand Prix Henri Cartier-Bresson (1991), and the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography (1992). Exhibitions of his work have been held at the Museum of Modern Art and the International Center of Photography, New York; the Hayward Gallery, London; the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; and the Palais de Tokyo, Paris.