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Cold war Prague was a seminal experience. Its austerity and beauty was
as from a dream of a mysterious Europe poised between past and present.
The Ministry of Culture directed that I should have access to Josef Sudek's
archive, newly arrived at the Museum of Decorative Arts. When it wasn't raining I walked or
photographed in the courtyard of a semi-derelict archive building, in which I had made an outdoor studio,
and on wet days I went to the museum to look through the old photographic boxes containing Sudek's life's work.

I was also fortunate to meet Jan Svoboda, a great photographer and an extraordinary man.