Josef Sudek was a strong and enigmatic individual, as much Czech as universal, he appeared to many through certain aspects of his published work to be a traditional artist. Paradoxically, he was to inspire the youngest, most unconventional and non-conformist generation of the world.

Everything which entered his images formed an integral part of his own life. Sudek achieved and created not only an œuvre but – and this is not of lesser importance – a life in which he himself is reflected. (Anna Fárová, Prague, September 1982)

Josef Sudek (Prague 1896-1976) is known above all for his landscapes, a photographic research work which began in the 1920s and lasted his whole life. After attending a school for book binders, Josef Sudek became an apprentice photographer at the age of fourteen, in the studio of Bohumila Bloudilova, a distant relative. During the First World War, Josef Sudek suffered an injury to his right arm, which was later amputated. He spent his convalescence in the war veterans' hospital in Prague, where he took a touching series of photographs with a smoky, despairing atmosphere.

In 1920 he became a member of the Amateur Photographers’ Club in Prague and met Jaromir Funke, with whom he founded the Czech Photography Society in 1924. During the same years he discovered the American photographers (Clarence H. White, Edward Weston), signed up to the School of Graphic Arts and followed the photography course held by Professor Karel Novák for two years in a row. His first great work was done between 1924 and 1928, following the reconstruction works of San Vito Cathedral in Prague. In 1926 his passion for music led him abroad, invited to accompany the members of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra on their tour of Italy. He opened his first studio in 1928, in the Malá Strana district of Prague, and in the years that followed enjoyed great professional success, in October 1932 inaugurating his first personal exhibition in Prague.

In 1940 he made an enthusiastic discovery of contact-printing; he returned to still life, the intimacy of his own garden and his fondest years; he used large format cameras, up to 30 x 40 cm; he continued to take photographs of Prague and its Castle. Around 1950, he used a large panoramic Kodak camera from 1894, obtaining images in 10 x 30 cm format. During his career he held and participated in many personal and collective exhibitions, and many publications included his works up until 15th September 1976 when he died at the age of 80, having curated his own exhibition at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. Other important personal exhibitions have been dedicated to the works of Josef Sudek, one of the last in Switzerland, at the Musée de L’Elysée in Lausanne in 1995; an important monograph was published (in three languages: Czech, German and English) in 1995 by Torst Publisher, Prague, with texts by Anna Farova.