16 Quotes by Josef Koudelka

The biggest lesson in photography is that from negative we make a positive.

I would like to see everything, look at everything, I want to be the view itself.

I never stay in one country more than three months. Why? Because I was interested in seeing, and if I stay longer I become blind.

I am not interested in repetition. I don’t want to reach the point from where I wouldn’t know how to go further. It’s good to set limits for oneself, but there comes a moment when we must destroy what we have constructed.

When I first started to take photographs in Czechoslovakia, I met this old gentleman, this old photographer, who told me a few practical things. One of the things he said was, “Josef, a photographer works on the subject, but the subject works on the photographer.”

I don’t like captions. I prefer people to look at my pictures and invent their own stories.

I don’t pretend to be an intellectual or a philosopher. I just look.

My work has no theme. I don’t care if my photographs get published, and I have no interest in the news. But the invasion of Prague was not news, it was my life.

If I am dissatisfied, it’s simply because good photos are few and far between. A good photo is a miracle.