Invasion 68 Prague, Photographs by Josef Koudelka at Aperture Gallery (digital)
© Brian Rose

A few posts back I wrote about 1968 and Paul Fusco’s photographs of the Robert Kennedy funeral train. Currently, at Aperture Gallery in Chelsea, is another exhibition dealing with 1968–Josef Koudelka’s photographs of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, which brought to a brutal end what is known as Prague Spring, a fleeting period of blossoming freedom behind the Iron Curtain.

The exhibition features a series of images made by Koudelka over the course of one week when Soviet tanks entered the Prague and were confronted by (mostly) young protesters in the street. Koudelka was just starting out as a photographer, and these pictures represent a spontaneous response to unfolding events–events that he was a part of–even as he remained unflinchingly faithful to the narrative of what was happening all around him. As a result his images do not exhibit the stylized framing that one sometimes associates with the genre. There is a fluidity to them. Although certain compositions achieve dramatic effect, more often they are part of a flow of images, almost filmic in nature. And they remind me, a little, of the direct cinema of the ’60s when documentary filmmakers participated in events as silent witnesses.

Koudelka at Aperture Gallery (digital)
© Brian Rose

Although the photographs show the bravery of the Czech people standing up to tanks and machine guns, heroism ultimately gives way to the futility of flesh and blood against the mechanized armor of the invaders. Koudelka’a images of swirling crowds pause here and there to capture the faces of Czech citizens and young foreign soldiers. Eventually, peaceful confrontation devolves into violence–fire and smoke rise from the streets. And the Czechs were defeated.

As much as one wants to celebrate the emergent skill of Koudelka, the bitter and gritty beauty of his photographs, the ultimate lesson of these images is that freedom is fragile and can be swiftly obliterated. It would be 21 years before a new Velvet Revolution emerged on the streets of Prague.

The Aperture exhibition is comprised of new inkjet prints, made from high resolution scans, which have a richness and texture different from silver prints and allow for large blow ups. Although I appreciate the qualities of vintage prints, I generally approve of these kind of reprintings, which often enhance and reveal detail and subtlety inherent in the images. Things can go wrong, of course, but in the right hands, the results can be stunning. They are here.