JOSEF SUDEK (1896–1976)
Spring Blossoms, Prague c. 1950

Start price: €2.200

Estimate: € 4.000–5.000

Vintage silver print, contact print

8,5 x 8,5 cm on 24 x 18 cm paper

Signed by the photographer with crayon in the black margin

In 1940 the »poet of Prague«, Josef Sudek, rediscovered the contact print for his photographic work when he came across a 30 × 40 cm print depicting a statue of Chartres. The photograph taken around 1900, was a contact print of such astonishing quality that Sudek from this point onwards refrained from making enlargements of his negatives. It was the soft tonal grading that Sudek was looking for in the contact print, he never placed importance on strong contrasts or absolute sharpness. He made an artistic event of every print, factors like the choice of paper (tones, size) or the positioning of the format on paper (relation of the image to the whole page, dark or light borders) contribute to the uniqueness of his prints.