Josef Sudek: A Photographer Who Devoted His Life to Beauty

Specialist Anne Bracegirdle on the Czech photographer whose focus on the beauty of inanimate objects reveals ‘a true appreciation of being alive’ during turbulent times. Find out more at ‘Josef Sudek used photography as a way to to explore the world around him, and it was in many ways therapeutic,’ says specialist Anne Bracegirdle, introducing the introspective Czech artist who found solace in still lifes amid wars and political turmoil. Sudek’s fascination with photography began in his late teens. ‘He began experimenting with box cameras, but was enlisted in the military during World War One,’ the specialist explains. Sudek took his camera with him, producing three series of photographs before a wound to his arm led to the limb being amputated. In the decades during which Sudek took photographs he returned to the same subjects, forming extensive series that came to be