Josef Koudelka at the Ernst Leitz Museum in Wetzlar

Parc de Sceaux, France, 1987 © Josef Koudelka – Magnum Photos

Exiles and Panoramas 1968 – 2012

Exhibition from 6 March – 23 August 2020

Josef Koudelka - A life’s work between contemporary history and timelessness. With a total of 68 works, the exhibition at the Ernst Leitz Museum offers a focused insight into Koudelka’s oeuvre. The groups of work reflect an exciting dialogue between humanity and fate, liveliness and dead matter, contemporary history and timelessness.

Josef Koudelka is one of the world’s most influential and distinguished photographers in recent decades. His visual language is incomparable, intense and extraordinary. Born in Boskovice (Czech Republic) in 1938, and currently living in Paris and Prague, the photographer’s impressive work will now be presented in a concise solo exhibition at the Ernst Leitz Museum in Wetzlar.

Exiles and Panoramas places the Exiles series in contrast to a personal selection of Koudelka’s panoramas, taken as of the mid eighties. While he had been entirely dedicated to 35mm photography for his previous work, a panorama camera now gave him the opportunity to discover the world in a new way: with pictures of expansive landscapes and coastal shorelines taken in Europe and the Middle East, he searches for traces of the past in areas that have undergone sometimes devastating changes due to industry, conflict or simply the passage of time. These grandiose visual worlds appear devoid of any people, yet they bear witness to human existence in a disturbing yet beguiling way.

Opening hours
Tuesday-Sunday
10:00 to 18:00 o'clock

Admission: 9 EUR*

Contact us
Am Leitz Park 6
35578 Wetzlar
info@ernst-leitz-museum.de

* You can visit both exhibitions for the entrance fee of 9€: Josef Koudelka - a life's work between contemporary history and timelessness. & Dr. Paul Wolff & Tritschler. Light and Shadow - Photographs 1920 to 1950