Josef Sudek: The Topography of Ruins

Josef Sudek: The Topography of Ruins

Katarína Mašterová (ed.)

In 1945, photographer Josef Sudek (1896–1976) set out into the streets of Prague to document the damage wreaked by the Second World War. The result was a set of nearly 400 images capturing the injured urban landscape – damaged buildings, a scrapyard containing dismantled sculptures, and firefighting or anti-air raid measures. The exhibition at Prague City Gallery’s House of Photography (22 May – 19 August 2018) and the accompanying traveling exhibition shown the same year in various cities throughout Europe thanks to cooperation with the Czech Centers are the first comprehensive presentation of this nearly unknown part of Sudek’s work.
The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive catalogue featuring five critical essays and a rich set of images. The texts – the first expert analyses of these photographs – place these works within the context of the historical events at the end of the war in Prague, and offer a comparison with images of Prague in 1945 shot by other photographers. In most photographs of historical events, the content tends to overshadow the quality of the images, but the exhibition and catalogue show that this common view does not apply to Josef Sudek – the depth and quality of his images reflect their authors’ sensitive, personal captivation by this difficult subject.

Authors: Adam Havlík, Amy Hughes, Mariana Kubištová, Vojtěch Lahoda, Katarína Mašterová

First edition, Czech/English, 224 pages, black and white illustrations, Praha 2018
ISBN: 978-80-88283-10-2