Characteristics of Jan Saudek's Works

Unlike American photographers like Daphne and Apollo, who consciously look for pain and misfortune, Sodek's works have few disturbing factors. He took photos in a small isolated room. Whoever walks into his studio enters the territory he controls, and his own laws are enforced here. He created a fantasy world for his model. Evan Payne, an American portrait photographer, works in a very similar way to Sodek: he always surrounds himself with a portable photography tent: "I take people to the camera in my studio and isolate them from the natural environment, not just isolating them, but completely changing them." Sodek is not satisfied with Payne's "change". He wants models to take off their clothes and put on costumes to perform. 199 1, Daniela Mrazkova talked about these women in her monograph on sodek: "They are willing to participate in this game. According to his idea, they take off their clothes or put on something and pose. "

People's view of Sodek's image may be pure: it is just the best example of a woman dedicating herself to a man. In fact, the poet August von platon once said, "Everything in creation reflects the joy of the creator." Even if we put aside issues such as the relationship between men and women and human nature, no photographer can be so close and cooperate with the women he faces for so long as Sodek. In his photography, he explores the miracle of the female body from every possible aspect-he is not just a bystander, but a participant who is wholeheartedly involved. He himself has clearly explained the meaning of all this: I can't describe other people's lives, I can only describe my own. "

Obviously, for the audience, the most interesting photos are undoubtedly those works with "personality temperament" flowing between Sodek and the model. For example, "Mary 142" is holding an undershirt with her teeth and posing as a tease; "Susanna" wore a corolla and dressed gracefully as a man; Or "Oh, this is a virgin" who shows her skinny chest like a challenge. Looking at these photos is like witnessing an intimate conversation. The photographer's eyes focused on his colleagues-at least in the early 1970s, Sodek only photographed people above the knee, which made their faces very close. However, Sodek will also introduce some declining backgrounds into the photos: the vicissitudes of years remain on the wall, but he will not let those young and soft-skinned bodies leave any traces of years. On the other hand, he deliberately shows the influence of time on body shape and skin in some photos. He pays attention to the unique behavior of women: young girls stare at her back from the mirror; How they caress their breasts or show obedience. Sodek is reminiscent of Thomas in Milan Kundera's novel The Unbearable Lightness of Life, a person who is obsessed with finding unique "nuances" in every conquered woman.

Sodek's later success should be attributed to his extraordinary ability to express profound truth with pictures that people can generally understand. He rarely tells readers about his daily life, but his photos show the life feelings of a person living in a pseudo-capitalist power system to the fullest. People long for freedom, but they can only see it in their dreams. This huge contradiction urges him to yearn for the beautiful dream expressed by Edward Steken in The Human Family. This photo exhibition, which was exhibited for the first time in the new york Museum of Modern Art, comprehensively shows the process from birth to death. This exhibition is on display in the capitals of 44 countries in the world, and its optimistic message is that world unity is much better than division. Steken said in a speech: "We live, we die, there is no difference between us. Each of us is like others, we are all human beings. "