The Archive comprises of regularly updated digitized photographs taken by Josef Sudek. The photographs are housed in the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IAH) in the Photo Library department and are recorded in the electronic database. The overall number of items is ca 20 000, and all of them will be made public on this website by the end of 2020. Each positive and negative has its own record in the database. The database is the outcome of the NAKI II project, ID code DG16P02M002.

For the purposes of the online publication of the digital reproductions of the negatives we have chosen the method of a double display – we present two images side by side: the color photograph of the negative and its inverted black and white image. The back sides of the original prints (or positives) have been digitized only in those cases when they show the original stamp of Josef Sudek or his personal notes. A number of the prints were adjusted in the 1980s by gluing them on a paper mount with a note on the card for filing. Because of the very difficult restoration process of separating the underlying cards, a process which might damage the photographs, it was decided to retain their present state and digitize them as they are. The reproduction of the negatives was done by a Phase One IQ 180 camera in the Photo Studio of the IAH. The reproductions of the prints were taken by an Epson Perfection 850 scanner in the Photo Library of the IAH. The database is based on the FileMaker software.

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Author of photographs: Josef Sudek
Digitization and photograph editing: Vlado Bohdan and Adéla Kremplová (Photo Studio of the IAH), Jan Douša (retouching), Kateřina Černá (scanning), Johana Bártová and Borek Smažinka (preview digitization of negatives)
Restoration works: Tereza Cíglerová, Kateřina Doležalová, Petra Šemíková, Barbara Gajewská (Restoration Studio of the IAH)
Database administration: Markéta Janotová, Martin Pavlis (Photo Library of the IAH)
Website: Onkubator
Graphic design: Martin Groch & Tim+Tim, Richard Wilde
Editing of database items: Dušana Barčová, Markéta Janotová, Hana Buddeus, Martin Pavlis, Katarína Mašterová, Kateřina Lahodová, Mariana Kubištová, Zuzana Krišková, Vojtěch Märc, Amy Hughes

Acknowledgements

The SUDEK PROJECT team would like to thank Dušana Barčová, the former director of the Photo Library, IAH, who worked there up until 2016, for the care which she had given to the Josef Sudek archive, for its initial processing and storing, and for founding the inventories and recording the first entries into the database. Special thanks go out to all the volunteers who generously took part in the project (Šárka Těšíková, Klára Kudláčková, Viktorie Šmídová, Tereza Říhová, Kateřina Stránská, Alena Michálková).