Jan Saudek - Czech Photographer

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Curriculum vitae

1935
Born, May 13th in Prague.

1947
In Life magazine, he sees a report about Evita Perón by Margaret Bourke-White, Eugena Smithe and Giselle Freund, and is instantly smitten.

1950
Receives his first camera, a Kodak Baby Brownie – his first photographic experiments follow.


1951
He creates and colors his first photograph.

1952
Studies to be a photographer, until the year 1983 works as a replicator of photographs in a print shop.

1959
He uses a „real“ camera, a Flexaret 6x6, and also draws and paints.

1963
Permanently influenced by the catalog accompanying the great photo exhibition The Family of Man (Edward Steichen).

1972
He discovers his signature WALL, which becomes synonymous with his work.

1977
Giselle Freund gives him a Rolleiflex which was used by Evita Perón. He uses it to this day.

1981
In Milan, the first monografIl teatro de la vita is released.

1983
He becomes a photographer by trade, dedicating himself to his artistic work.

1987
His family confiscates his negatives – he won’t get them back for another five months.

1990
Becomes the first Czech ever to receive the distinction of the French title Le Chevalier des Arts et Letters (Knight of Art and Literature). The French director Jerome de Missolz shoots a film about him, Jan Saudek – Czech Photographer.

1993
The film company Febio selects him for the project GEN (100 Czechs of Today).

1998
His photographs are exhibited in his homeland – the proceeds (7,200,000 crowns) are given to charitable causes.

2005
His fourteenth and most extensive monograph, SAUDEK (Published by Slovart, Praha), is released alongside a large retrospective gallery in Prague.

2006
From the hands of the Minister of Culture, he receives the honor of Artis Bohemiae Amicis for spreading the good name of his country abroad. The publisher Taschen takes over the monograph SAUDEK and releases it across the globe – within six weeks, all shipments are sold out.

2007
On Celetna Street in Prague, a permanent gallery of work by Jan Saudek is opened.