Josef Sudek - Prague Panoramic - 1992

Renowned Czech photographer Josef Sudek is particularly known for his images of Prague in a career that has been compared that of Eugene Atget's extensive documentation of Paris. As Parr and Badger note: "Sudek had always been intrigued by the photographic panorama, but it was the discovery of an old Kodak panoramic camera in a friend's house in the 1950s that inspired him to make the work by which he is now immediately recognized. Of all his books, this one sums up his love of Prague, in all weathers, in all seasons, and not just the historic, public centre, but the most slovenly industrial suburbs, and the scrofulous fringes where the city meets the country. The panoramic camera is a strong unifying element in the imagery, but so is Sudek's democratic eye, which disregards nothing. He treats cathedral and castle in exactly the same way was he treats a factory or a garage. The great public spaces of Prague, which, like the public spaces in any capital, could easily look boring or bombastic in the wrong photographer's hands, are here rendered intimate, while the humblest house or industrial building in a far-flung suburb is monumentalized, graced with Sudek's poetry. His prints are usually dark and a little gloomy, tending towards the romantic, but his feeling for light, weather and space in combination has never been surpassed… [Praha panoamaticka] is a veritable encyclopedia of how to plot, construct and unify a panoramic photograph"

Included in: Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook, Vol.1, page 211

Condition:
Very good first German edition from 1992. Very good condition with facsimile signature on dust jacket and cover. Some sun-related yellowing to white dust jacket, particularly along the spine and top of page block. Interior clean and bright. Very slight printing blemish to two facing pages - images unaffected. Please examine listing photographs carefully.