Timm Rautert

Timm Rautert (born 1941) met Josef Sudek for the first time on a study trip to Prague in the spring of 1967. The photography student and the 71-year-old Sudek--who was arguably the most important Czech landscape and still-life photographer of the 20th century and a cult figure in his native country--instantly took to each other, and Rautert began photographing the artist in his studio and at his home. He accompanied him on his strolls in parks in Little Prague on the left bank of the Vltava river as he searched for adequate perspectives, and documented his work process inside and outside the darkroom. First published in 2008, the Sudek series, here compiled in this new volume, is an extraordinary chronicle of a fascinating personality and place in the run-up to the Prague Spring, and marks the beginning of Rautert's career, during which the portrait and people at work were of particular importance to him.