Magnum Photos Blog

From the Archive 

Chaos 

August 22, 2013 
by Josef Koudelka 
Chaos is a selection of panoramic photographs which characterize Koudelka's vision during the 1990s. These images of the landscapes of France, Greece, Lebanon or Czech Republik are strangely paradoxical: a harsh witness to the anarchy that man has imposed on nature and on himself, Koudelka's work showing chaos is nevertheless highly composed in its form. Straightforwardly and without controversy, it exposes the absurdity of a world that has been transformed into a state of dilapidation by war, pollution and mismanagement of power. However a few images of intact countryside are there, but, according to Robert Delpire, only as a way to remember the past.