He returned from exile when Czechoslovakia became fully independent in 1989, but he doesn’t call any place home. “Home is inside myself,” he says. “For 15 years of exile I never had my own place or slept in hotels.” He would sleep in fields with the gypsies he loved to photograph, or wherever someone would take him in. He was invited to join the Magnum “family” in 1971, and would often sleep in the Magnum office in London, using it as his business address. Now he has a place in Prague and one in Paris; not homes as such, he explains, more work stations; darkrooms with wide benches and a bed in case he’s tired. Koudelka says travel gives him a fresh view of the world and the people he photographs. “The greatest cadeau, the best present exile gave me, was that I came back to my country after 20 years and saw it as I never had before. I realised I had lived there but never really looked at these streets. If I stay in one place, I become blind.”
Now 74, Koudelka rarely gives interviews; he is seldom in one place for long enough. Years in exile have made him a hardened traveller. His main focus is always his work: “I don’t do workshops, I don’t like interviews. I don’t like repeating myself and I don’t like to preach. My time is limited and I try to use it as best I can. The most important thing is to keep doing what you love, and I love photography,” he says.
http://rompedas.blogspot.com/2011/05/nomad-at-heart.html
