Kafka's Grave
Kafka's Grave
Kafka's Grave and other stories
Photographs by Paul Ickovic
Foreword by David Mamet.
Okapi Editions, New York and Nairobi, 1986
Hardcover, 17 x 14 inches. Thirty-eight photographs rendered as tritones, printed by dry trap at The Stinehour Press under the supervision of Stephen Stinehour. Recipient of AIGA 50 Books for 1986.
Paul Ickovic (1944 – 2023) printed Kafka’s Grave with The Stinehour Press in a now rare process of dry trap tritones, where the first color separation for highlights was printed and assesed, then put aside for the ink to dry down to evaluate before continuing with the second plate for midtones, repeating the process through the final pass of the third plate containing the darkest values. Working in this way allowed for ultimate control and refinement, and yielded a magnificent book which has few peers.
With a flair reminiscent of Federico Fellini, Paul Ickovic roams the world in pursuit of moments. A storyteller without words, he allows his images to float upon the imagination of the viewer and create their own scenarios-- reviving myths and archetypes, tales of the romantic and fantastic. 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 endless variation of relationship and femininity ~ Elvira Piedra
Born in Kettering, England, Paul Ickovic emigrated with his family to the United States via Czechoslovakia and Colombia at age thirteen. Assistant of Henri Cartier-Bresson, friend of Josef Kudelka, his influences are those of the great street photographers, but the daring and heart in his photographs is his alone. A pilot, printer and musician, he is the author of In Transit, Kafka's Grave, Safe Conduct, Gorgeous Infidelities, and a children's book, Nicholas and The Magic Box. His final monograph, ICKOVIC, was published IN 2021. His photographs are held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Minneapolis Art Museum, The Smithsonianand the New York Public Library. He called many places home– Sag Harbor, Lunenburg, Amherst, Ljubljana, and Prague, the birthplace of his parents, where he returned in 2021.