Bohemia

1963, printed 1968–69
(Czech, 1938-)
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location: not on view

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Did You Know?

Josef Koudelka’s photos of the Roma were initially signed P.P. or Prague Photographer, for fear of governmental reprisals against the artist and his family.

Description

Koudelka began photographing the Roma of his native Czechoslovakia, or Gypsies as they were known at the time, in 1961 and continued for a decade. This was a personal undertaking, intended to preserve the vanishing culture of a group targeted for assimilation. This image, taken in Bohemia in western Czechoslovakia, suggests both assimilation—in the form of a settled residence instead of nomadic life, a rather elegant couch, and a besuited young man—and, in his wild grin as he smokes a cigar, the independence of the Roma spirit.
Bohemia

Bohemia

1963, printed 1968–69

Josef Koudelka

(Czech, 1938-)
Czechoslovakia, 20th century

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