Jan Saudek

25 Mar

Born by the beginning of the WW II, Jan Saudek has been put through a lot of pain and horror before he became the most famous Czech photographer. Nazis imprisoned his Jewish-rooted family in one of the concentration camps in Germany. Along with his brother Jan Saudek was detained to a children’s concentration camp. He managed to survive the worst conditions just to find out that his family has been terminated. The brutality and roughness of the war had a strong impact on his later work. Black-and-white, hand-tinted photographs were inspired by grey shadows of the war. Added colours were meant to symbolize people’s attempts to escape the harsh reality, although one can notice elements that clearly reflect his childhood’s experiences. Aspects such as bare plaster walls, or human body’s imperfections are to a certain extent synonyms of war and concentration camps. Inspired by painters such as Balthus and Bernard Faucon, Saudek developed an unique style of erotic photography mixed with ugliness of the surrounding places. His focus was also on the clear differences and the ambiguity between men and women. Throughout his whole life he emerged into a great artist whose difficult life proliferated in his work. I believe that sometimes only reality is able to dare us to be greater than any pain.