Rethinking the Image

Image source: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/koudelka-england-p82779 (Accessed: 1 June 2025). © Josef Koudelka/MAGNUM Photos

Josef Koudelka, England (1976).

Josef Koudelka is a Czech documentary photographer, known for his arresting snapshots of everyday life in 20th-century Europe^[1]. He fled Prague in 1970, two years after the city’s invasion by Soviet forces^[1], and lived a nomadic life in the years that followed, remaining stateless until receiving French citizenship in 1987^[2].

In this photograph, Koudelka uses the rule of thirds to striking effect by placing his male subject in the bottom-right of the image, his dark silhouette contrasting with the light-coloured ground. Beyond him, an alleyway separates two rows of Victorian terraced houses in what is evidently a well-kept, working-class area. There is a sense of timelessness to this scene, only slightly undermined by the more modern building that looms discreetly on the brow of the hill.

The subject of the photograph wears a flat cap – an item of clothing which is commonly associated with working-class men in the North of England – with his scarf tucked underneath a dark-coloured jacket or overcoat. His outfit is typical of that of an older, working-class man of the time, which is to say that it is both smart and practical.

Upon viewing this photograph, the viewer may imagine the breadth of changes that the subject experienced during his life, up to the moment the photograph was taken. As an older man, he would have lived through both World Wars and experienced both the austerity of the 1950s and the dramatic cultural and societal shifts that followed, but with the tumultuous past behind him and an unwritten future ahead, his expression is calm and stoic.

The title of this photograph follows the naming convention of other photographs from Koudelka’s itinerant period in referring simply to the country in which it was taken^[1]. Of course, the photograph is merely a single snapshot of England, but it could be said to represent the country as well as any other, rendering its simple title highly appropriate.

The subject’s flat cap and sharp facial features give him a distinctive profile, perhaps elevating his function within the image to that of an icon, operating in a similar way to the portrait of the monarch on a definitive British postage stamp^[3][4]. In this case, however, the subject could be said to represent the understated resolve and resilience of the country’s common people, rather than its formal culture and traditions^[5].

Although it is unclear where the man has come from or where he is going, it is clear that he is at an intersection which is typical of areas of dense terraced housing, where alleyways meet side streets in grid-like formations. His precise physical location gives the image a liminal, transient quality, recalling Koudelka’s itinerant lifestyle and evoking the fleetingness of his encounters with places and people^[1].

[1] Tate (no date) Josef Koudelka. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern/display/artist-and-society/josef-koudelka (Accessed: 1 June 2025).

[2] Tate (no date) England. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/koudelka-england-p82779 (Accessed: 1 June 2025).

[3] Scott, D. (1995) European Stamp Design: A Semiotic Approach to Designing Messages. London: Academy Editions, p. 17.

[4] See: https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/king-charles-stamp-crown-comp-1.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1200 (Accessed: 1 June 2025).

[5] With this contrast in mind, the fact that his profile faces right, rather than left, is fitting.