Website of the photographer Paul Ickovic.
Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius.
Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.
-- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Welcome to a world of photographs, drawings and writings by the artist Paul Ickovic.
Welcome to a world of photographs, drawings and writings by Paul Ickovic.
Born Pavel, Paul Ickovic was thirteen when he emigrated with his family to the United States via Czechoslovakia, England and Colombia. An assistant of Henri Cartier-Bresson, friend of Josef Koudelka, his lineage is among the great street photographers, yet what he sees expresses the daring and heart that is his alone. With a flair reminiscent of Federico Fellini, Paul Ickovic roams the world in pursuit of moments. A vagabond, a storyteller without words, he flows along the currents of the street, at one moment Paul, the next Pablo, and back again. In a stream of ideas and emotions, he allows his images to float upon the imagination of the viewer and create their own scenarios-- tales of the romantic, the fantastic. The poetry of Neruda, the voice of Nina Simone, and the music of Django Reinhardt suffuse his inner world. Using only his Leica, one lens and black and white film, he reveals the ineffable, the bizarre, tender and beautiful apparitions of life. His subject is the mythologic drama of ordinary life, and the endless variations of relationship and femininity, depicted in his photographs as well as his playful drawings. A pilot, printer and musician, he is the author of five books-- Kafka's Grave, In Transit, Safe Conduct, Gorgeous Infidelities, a collaboration with poet Naila Moreira, and a children's book, Nicholas and The Magic Box. His photographs have been widely exhibited and are included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; La Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Prague; Minneapolis Art Museum, the Smithsonian Institution and the New York Public Library which has forty of his prints. His work is represented by Robert Klein Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts. His most recent monograph Paul Ickovic, Photographs, edited by Natalija Polenec and printed by Trifolio was published in 2021 to coincide with the exhibition En Transit at La Bibliothèque Nationale. He died in Prague on 23 May 2023 . A selection of obituaries, tributes and essays on Paul can be found here.
But these are only some facts. He’d want you to travel by story, to let the pictures take you somewhere, so come, let’s go there.
Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination
nor both together go to the making of genius.
Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.
-- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart