The Life of the Characters in Jan Saudek's Works

Sodek himself is a worker, contacts the bottom of society, and the models he looks for are quite tacky. The basement is his theatre of dreams. There are mottled walls and wet floors, and there is a window where you can't see anything. Books, negatives, clothes and soap all smell of death. He dominates everything, and those women with big breasts and fat hips proudly lift or take off their skirts to show off their strong desires; Or put on old-fashioned clothes and put on exaggerated and rigid shapes; He himself is often full of passion, leading the farce; Many photos are hand-painted, but the colors are gaudy but untrue.

At that time, the mainstream of Czech photography was documentary, and Sodek's works should be classified as pornography. His residence was searched many times, photos and negatives were confiscated, and the National Security Bureau interrogated the model and his relatives and friends according to the photos. Once the police confiscated his jeans, which forced him to go home in underwear. He was forced to report his whereabouts to the police station regularly. He described his life like this: "I work alone, and few people know what I am doing." I work in the factory all day, and sometimes I work overtime-living and buying photographic materials are enough. "

In the former Czech Republic, a man worked in a factory from 6 am to 3 pm. Jon Sodek lives in a basement with mottled walls and a pungent musty smell. The small window in the basement faces a dark and narrow space. This man is JanSaudek. In the early 1970s, he discovered this basement and turned it into his refuge, where Sodek's life changed decisively. Without extraordinary imagination, I'm afraid it's difficult for him to continue his photography here as before. rope

Dirk lives in poverty, and he has almost nothing except a commuter bike and an old Pentacon)6 camera. And his greatest wealth is his great ambition and endless great vitality. Sodek is Jewish. Except for him and his twin brother, all his family members died in German concentration camps during World War II. He and his twin brother were tortured by living experiments in concentration camps. At that time, he was less than ten years old. In the early 1960s, Sodek's photos mostly showed family members, children and friends, and their existence space determined the scope of his photography. He also often takes pictures in the street. He told people to lean against the wall or in the garden and take pictures of their most natural moments. After entering the 1970s, Sodek's photography stage became more and more concentrated in the "basement", and the multi-tone wall covering almost became the registered trademark of his photography. If Sodek hadn't moved into this basement, it's hard to imagine which direction his creation would develop, but one thing is certain, he has no interest in landscape and still life photography. His desire and ambition forced him to choose the way of shooting face to face with real people. About 1974 When he started taking a large number of nude photos, he told a friend that he wanted to try some report photography, but due to limited conditions, he could not continue to develop in this direction-the work he relied on for a living only made him barely make ends meet and left him no time to take pictures during the day. Sodek is most respected for his alienated character in photography. Unlike his contemporary photographers, the trauma caused by the Soviet invasion of Czech Republic in 1968 did not stop Sodek from creating something new.

Social reality has no place in his visual world-whether before or after 1968. Before the terrible day when a college student named Zhan Parah set himself on fire, he was indifferent to any political events. For Sodek, the late 1960s was a major turning point in his life.

Sodek never shoots still life scenery, only people. In Sodek's photos, we can see his thoughts on human happiness and pain, and the light of human nature hits the heart directly. Full of tension, a flower of life blooms everywhere, and all anxiety and guilt are swallowed up by powerful desires. Pregnant with death, joys and sorrows, passion is everywhere. We are used to body photography that pursues light and shadow and curves of women's bodies, but Sodek doesn't seem to care about these technical and sensory things, so what he sees may not be the expected beautiful body, but the life state and essence that Sodek dramatically interprets with his camera in the dim light of Prague basement.