Episode #21: Living in Exile
On Josef Koudelka and his concept of home
“To be in exile is simply to have left one’s country and to be unable to return. Every exile is a different, personal experience. Myself, I wanted to see the world and photograph it.”
In today’s episode, I want to try something new. So far, I’ve conducted direct interviews or documented places and communities I’ve personally visited. But I feel there’s room to introduce deep dives into the lives of specific artists whose sense of belonging and concept of home have shaped their work. I couldn’t think of a better artist to start with than one of my favorites.
Josef Koudelka’s Concept of Home
If you’re unfamiliar with him, here's a short introduction: Josef Koudelka, born in 1938, is a Czech photographer. He is one of the great representatives of the humanistic and poetic tradition that dominated European photography. But beyond his iconic work, what fascinates me most is his life. A constant movement, a deliberate rejection of the conventional idea of home.
As you will read below, during his life he tried to “own nothing” and rather focused on the experience itself and the connection with other human beings. I don’t think I’ve ever felt a stronger connection to a way of thinking, living, and creating than I do with his.
“I didn’t want to have what people call a 'home'. I didn’t have a flat, I didn’t need one. On the contrary, I tried to avoid owning anything. I didn’t pay rent. I realized that I could travel on the money that I would have spent on a flat. What I needed most was to travel so that I could take photographs.”
Every word from this point forward is taken from interviews and journal extracts. Most of them to be found in “Josef Koudelka Next - A Visual Biography by Melissa Harris” published by Aperture.
“I knew that I didn’t need much to function – some food and a good night’s sleep. I learned to sleep anywhere and under any circumstances. I had a rule: “Don’t worry where you are going to sleep, so far you’ve slept almost every night, you’ll sleep again tonight. And if you sleep outdoors, you have two choices - to be afraid that something might happen to you … or accept the fact that anything might happen and get a good sleep, which is the most important thing you need to function well the next day.”
“There is nothing more beautiful than to sleep under the stars. To look at the sky and wait until you see Vega, Arctutus, and all these other stars. The stars become your friends too. What you see above you, it puts things into proportion: what you are and what you represent — what you mean in all of this.”
“I’ve always considered myself lucky to have been born in Czechoslovakia so that I didn’t get used to certain things that were taken for granted in the West… When I lived in Czechoslovakia, freedom for me meant mainly being able to do what I wanted… I didn’t need to go somewhere far away to take photographs.”
“Only once you get back to your country after twenty years, to the country where you were born, do you realize how much you’ve changed, and that the town, visually, didn’t change much, and the people didn’t change either… What changed you was everything that you went through, what you saw, where you lived… The return from exile is nearly as strong as leaving for exile.”
“I’ve never aspired to have the perfect home, to be tied to something like that. When I bought my home, my main requirement was that I could work here. I live in Paris – this is just another part of my traveling life. I don’t need to fill houses with clothes. I have two shirts that last for three years. I sleep in them. I keep my passport in the top pocket and some money in the other. I wash them in one go and they dry quickly, it’s very simple. I only carry things that are needed: my cameras, film, and a spare pair of glasses.”
“For 17 years I never paid any rent. Even the Gypsies were sorry for me because they thought I was poorer than them. At night they were in their caravans and I was the guy who was sleeping outside beneath the sky.”
“Every time when I wake up in the morning… I have incredible pleasure to be alive… It’s very good to have nothing, because wherever you go you’ll find more… In the moment you start to defend what you have, you are lost”.
And to finish…
Letter to his parents, London (June 1971)
“Dear Parents…
I’m still well and have a good appetite for food and work and for everything, mainly life.
I can afford a luxury that most people in the world cannot afford TO DO THINGS FOR MYSELF AND WORK FOR MYSELF and not for money or some bad and stupid superior bosses…
I have everything a man needs for life…
I thank you very much that I have been born.“
I hope you liked this episode and if something, start to appreciate the place you belong to.
Until the next one,
Much love.
F
I quoted Josef Koudelka already in the past on Project Home, read it in the episode below:
Yes, one of the most inspiring photographers, I like his Diaries, there is now an exhibition of his photos of old monuments in Prague - https://romanrogner.substack.com/p/josef-koudelka-ruiny
His Gypsies project was superb - but I didn't know that for years he didn't have a home by choice. Fascinating article Francesco, thank you.