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Pastimes : Digital Photography -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mike Buckley who wrote (8006)	6/20/2004 12:56:44 AM
From: Done, gone.	Respond to of 21663

What were the circumstances that you found that [Sudek] print? It was on my first trip back to free Prague, after having been gone for 21 of the darkest communist years. The first photo gallery had just opened few days earlier: Dobry Galerie (Dobry means Good). I walked in and there was the color Sudek, badly framed and horribly matted, hanging in a corner. I knew the view from Sudek's last studio window like the back of my hand, so instantly recognized that the photo must have been made from within his studio. The edges of the print told me it was made with one of his cameras because, as you know, each film camera has it's signature edge -- Sudek's camera edges are unmistakable. All that told me it could be a Sudek, but the fact it was color didn't make any sense. I'd never heard of a color Sudek before. The gallery owner swore up and down it was a Sudek. I was obviously suspicious, thinking maybe someone got a hold of one of Sudek's cameras, stuffed some color in it, and made a snap out of his window. Nothing else made much sense. The owner claimed he had seen the Fotografie magazine which authenticated the image as Sudek's, but he didn't have a copy of it. It was a toss up. I'd either get screwed out of $300 (which was so cheap for a Sudek it made me doubly suspicious) or I'd get The Bargain of my life. I put the money down and walked out with the print. I took it to Anna Farova, the foremost Sudek expert. She just about fell over. Two days later I found the magazine in a used book store. The rest is history. To this day I have no idea why the dealer didn't jack up the price to where it should have been -- a complete mystery to me. Oh, and if Frank thinks we should take it off this thread, I'm sure he'll speak up, in which case we can continue the conversation at #subject-53134.