[2] Between 1962 and 1971, Koudelka travelled throughout Czechoslovakia and rural Romania, Hungary, France and Spain photographing Romani people.

[3] He had returned from photographing Romani people in Romania just two days before the Soviet invasion, in August 1968.

[5] Koudelka's pictures of the events became dramatic international symbols, and came to be "recognised as one of the most powerful photojournalistic essays of the 20th century".

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Koudelka sustained his work through numerous grants and awards, and continued to exhibit and publish major projects like Gypsies (1975) and Exiles (1988).

He and his work received support and acknowledgment from his friend the French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson.

[9] Koudelka's early work significantly shaped his later photography, and its emphasis on social and cultural rituals as well as death.

Throughout his career, Koudelka has been praised for his ability to capture the presence of the human spirit amidst dark landscapes.

[1] This book is composed of panoramic landscapes that he made between 2008 and 2012, as his project for the photography collective This Place, organized by photographer Frédéric Brenner.