I came home yesterday with two books and I think they warrant a blog. The first is Josef Koudelka’s Prague Invasion and the other, Nicholas Nixon’s The Brown Sisters.
Koudelka’s book is a collection of images taken during the 1968 uprising in his own country. It has been published in different forms over the years but never in such depth and breath. This edition by Thames & Hudson, is longawaited, and my only regret is that – it should have been a hardcover. Those familiar with this body of work will know that he went through a lot of personal danger to get them out.
Nixon, to me, is obsession-personified. For 33 years and more, he photographs the same four sisters. You see them age and change. So much of it is in the images, but even more lies beneath the surface. I want to know what went through their lives, their relationships with each other, with the external world, with Nixon. I love this simple project the first time I saw it more than 10 years ago and I am just glad I am now a proud owner.
Koudelka’s book took 40 years, Nixon’s project is in its 30++ years. There is something in them that makes me even more determined to stay the course.
