with rallies and protests to shaking different parts of the world this year it's worth taking a look back in history the prague spring kicked off more than four decades ago and became a significant turning point in czech history and allow spotlighting to be show host argonaut interviews jurors of one of the most renowned photographer of the twentieth century who witnessed the. hello again and welcome to spotlight the interview shouty i'll bring our friend to be my guest on the show. more than four decades ago in czechoslovakia the so-called prague spring. it was a period of political liberalization which ended up with nassif invasion of the warsaw pact armies into the country besides being important in history the prague

spring was also a breakthrough for one of the most renowned photographer the twentieth century he was a good elf photographed the invasion and the resistance and today he's here to share his experience. as a kook is considered one of the most equal actual photographers of modern times he started his career by turning his lens on the gypsies in slovakia and romania later focused on landscape photography but his best known work is on the song that invasion of czechoslovakia nine hundred sixty eight it was published in the british army times magazine under the pen name peepee make good old days alex ragnall popular an award winning photographer. how does the codell kind of welcome to the show good my very much should be with. that's out for now so just is going to buy there's a travel all the time in france they say. in english so you can call whatever

you want listen it's very hard for me being a russian to talk to the czech national about the events ninety sixty it's even after all these years well what about you are you alright with the russian. after forty years of you know it's very hard for me to. in fact. before going to moscow it's not my first time in mexico. before going to moscow but they have been here for eight years so before going to moscow i was the thing which i was most afraid not to get emotional. because still. it is very close to my heart. because because the first show the fish the word was that this invasion in prague in czechoslovakia was over but by the socialist countries by the countries of the of the warsaw pact but actually it was led by the soviet

army and most of the soldiers were russians of course he was khalid there was an i would like you to excuse me because in the past of time we were saying russians russian so i would like to apologize to all the viewers if i say russian of what they really mean soviet union soldiers who were though it was a different country and yours was a different country and ours was a different country well as a matter of fact today well the face of europe has changed and there is no more socialist countries on the face of europe could we say that actually your country czechoslovakia was and your people were the first to spark this change to start the process is a true. i can't talk about that you know i was never interested in the politics. and i was living in czechoslovakia and it was similar

in their show. before sixty eight nothing was possible and suddenly in sixty eight everything's that will be possible i mean even even people who are not interesting politics certainly involve so i can talk about this is what was really happening it doesn't interest me much but there were so happy to bring happen because suddenly i could say what they wanted to say it was the perestroika in russia years later thirty years later would go but yes i can tell you. i in one thousand eight hundred nine i couldn't go back. but i was innovative to come to russia to fight to get a better story. so every day when i was in front the law. of a selling world people are saying i was walking around moscow quite a few being arrested because i photographed something what they didn't supposed to

photograph but exactly i would say it was probably something similar so so you did find things things in common even even being just a photographer a nonpolitical absolutely well actually more than forty years ago russian tanks and tanks of other socialist countries rolled into czechoslovakia to put an end to the country's reforms this is what. the media has to say about. spring nineteen sixty eight was exceptional in the history of what was known as czechoslovakia the country was dominated by this soviet union a period of liberalization was taking place the checks on the slovaks were anticipated and mild a more democratic version of the soviet regime the reformist alexander do puke i just come to power huge the communist party's grip on the country granting citizens agree to freedom of expression the reforms home of all we're not received well by

this. it you know and a series of negotiations followed but the you were ceasars leader their new direction if wasn't satisfied with the results eventually on the twenty first of all list troops from five warsaw pact countries and to have a care so that tanks were deployed in the streets of the capital prague during the uprising seventy two czech and slovak civilians were killed later on a group of moscow citizens held a protest on the red square against the invasion demonstrators were arrested then lead upon ish to the soviet invasion put an end to this short period of liberalization in czechoslovakia which had to wait a further twenty years to the reader of this soviet regime. you graduated from university back in one thousand nine hundred sixty one and you got a diploma of an engineer yes the same year when you graduated you you actually

organized your first exhibit of your photographic works doesn't mean that then when you were a young graduate you already wanted to be a professional photographer or it was never like a hobby still don't consider myself to be a professional killer. is you know i think i'm a much of it that you make money. yes i'm a living from the front of you know that that makes you professional. i think it depends on how you look at it ok so let's say i live from the photography but i still consider myself i have the same life like all these feet and i'm going to start. for thirty or so so would you consider yourself making money by a photography but but still i can still see an amateur like truthful agatha christie's poor role miss marple they weren't professional detectives they were amateurs. you know what in fact what they wanted to say that.

none of us engine in a study or an engineering i started to make for us. to make for two thousand because something was interesting and it developed great love to the photography which is luckily enough last things there today so that's what i wanted to say that in fact i am still the same man who started for the love it fifty years ago listen he you were there mature for governor for ok in the sixty's and when when these reforms when this period striker in czechoslovakia started what were you interested in photographing these events you said you were not political i was not i was not. really interested in the politics of course but i can tell you whole would happen i never photographed as a photographer before any news. and i never photographed any newspaper.

i never photo you have any story but it happened something that one day i came back from a woman in every photo you have gypsy and next night my girlfriend called me and they said the russians are here. she called me three times because i thought i didn't believe she was drunk that was at four o'clock in the morning you know we are now and finally when she said open the window and listen i opened the window i could hear the plane flying very i don't know five minutes so i realized something was happening. any hesitation these are thinking about politic result think i just pick my camera pick my films and i get on the streets. and i started to photograph and i thought that it was important to her program

because i was czech it was my country. and it concerned me directly. and suddenly because what was happening you know there were photographs everywhere there were so many things happening it was so is it before. you turn around and picture was there i have two pictures i'm not sure if these pictures are here there's one picture of the no picture which is a man against the burning and the second picture which is very good picture two young men it is the flame which is but every thirty seconds that one. after one after second. so it was incredible and i think you know for me for me the biggest the most interesting thing is that i was not the man who for the good of the news but suddenly this what i did become classic example of the report

that it is considered. with a lot of people with cameras on the streets. there were not too many people as they come in. and of course the russian soldiers they have the order to prevent they quickly towns. destroyed or come at us or take them in our survey and the shooter after the fight over they probably didn't shoot him but if you hear shooting behind you don't bother much beach anywhere anyway so there but. you know i think. like you my picture might be better than the some other ones and definitely more complete and by that different that the pictures of all these professional photographers that you know. i think because i was it was my problem it was my country and i had to add to it says

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question on the dot com. hello again and welcome to spotlight i'm al green of and here in the studio with me today i have photographer just so i could dunk. you said that your pictures the pictures that you took during the crank spring in the back nine hundred sixty eight probably were better than pictures taken by professionals from from the agencies with a lot of people the courage to get into czechoslovakia for a from a professional agency yes they probably they didn't have it like like me because i was the first on the spot. and in fact the first day it was the

most interesting you know i had a certain picture in fact my picture has been published in. book and magazine as. a russian soldiers look on what was going on in the streets because i was standing just next to the soldiers was it you said that the russian soldiers even could shoot in the direction of people taking pictures so it could have been very dangerous was that it would lessen. people being killed but i know that russian soldiers they. took every child thing. you know they could of course when when your tank is burning and you are there is the gun you can start to shoot it is clear and there are decisions and there are not children shooting but of course people are shot you you are talking about

bringing soviet tanks world does that mean that the resistance against invasion world was very strong and i mean the czechs and slovaks were very serious about fighting back. you know. they didn't have a chance that there they understood that they didn't have any chance of course since you know i can talk to you all know about but out. there really i wouldn't and after of course the prague is not. a park is not moscow and i can tall tell you and my pictures are showing i published this book in eleven countries and my book. is published also in the russian and it show what was happening in the center of the broken seven base. how did you manage to smuggle your pictures abroad because after going after the invasion the regime was were was a very strict soviet regime no war period troika know what liberals are so so it

probably was hard for you to to to to get your pictures i look at home here now. all these events in sixty eight. where there was really like it. that i wake up early there was the first fun with all these pictures that. nobody faked my films but i really i didn't did this picture is that it is the aim to publish and. i developed my films only one month or two months later and then i started to make those little prince i was showing them my friends and i left some of them as my friend then came czechoslovakia came somebody one curator of the photography from washington smithsonian institute. and he saw them. he asked if he can take six with them so my friend called me as to give it to him

the big deal. and then he was front of a lot of it who in that was president of the longford. and he saw these pictures he was very interested then in these beaches so he sent a message to. ask if the photographer has more these pictures and if i would be willing to send then i got i said no no i don't. want to have them i don't want to take those sold then finally they convinced me that magnum is the it was from my you know. agency sirus organisation. station here that i don't need to be afraid so that somebody else came for some different these in the region i don't know exactly i think he was the doctor of our medical gone congress he took in i got this old smuggling anyway yeah but what was the reaction in prague your

reaction of friends when your photographs your pictures started to be published all around the world the whole all the world publications know in a tragic but i know what he saw that really if you don't know about it now in fact the only thing the whole way you. and my pictures never used it to us on the free europe of voice of america somebody here they knew was an unknown name was check for the you know for received the call and mail their cup our prize for his picture. and by chance therefore first anniversary in august one year later i was in this group my theatre group which i photographed they play many chekov and they came to play call and. what happened one sunday i get the aunt and everybody are still looking in the magazine so i look to the magazine was full of my photographs but of course i couldn't tell them they were my

photos so so so so so all the time when your pictures were published anonymous check for google and really not only your look time. i my pictures of not publish was on mine for sixteen years mainly for the reason that i still have got family in czechoslovakia and of course they could have problems with when you decided to immigrate to to leave chicks like you wasn't for political reasons what did you get a good job offer for a month. i didn't know anything about my example that i knew that they they got the negatives so there's not not a ton of michael it was not for political reasons the policy the main reason or us and probably you can understand it because you are younger than me but i was afraid i was afraid and they're going to learn who is this proud of her who would take all

these pictures from praxis there and. and even a new i went to jail really and as that is good to jail. people read. for much simpler things here and the charge would have been smuggling pictures you say things no no you go for drug of no a charge would be. saying something bad about to cause like your own country yes well in fact very happy that for sixteen years i didn't say in the speech or by my name and the arguments you had become i became known by some different sort of pictures of each other mainly gypsy pictures and not by these pictures was it a difficult decision for you and it was a difficult actually to get out from czechoslovakia it was a very difficult but the difference what you said how did you manage what you said

the regime didn't change s. quickly as they wanted you know one day russian came and but all these people in the ministry. in the gypsy group which you needed to get their recommendation they stay there. so the story is a little longer but maybe we don't have a time to tell it. but you left your family back in chips like each other for the first couple of years later they joined you yes no no no. my thought my my parents. and i was not able to see them. no when you come to prague these days do you see it from a different angle it was what i mean the city the people the country i after after so many years you spent abroad you know. exile it gives you.

exile is. can be bad for some people i have written the book which is called exile. which is not a boat people who are in the exam but people it'll outside of the society and just a militia. who is the nobel prize a writer polish. to a he said exile and kill but if doesn't kill you make you stronger and exile gives you one possibility to start your life from the scratch you live in the moscow you come every day here they know who you are influence you can change from one day throughout the day you suddenly you are you get in some and nobody knows anything you have your house burned on i have to start your life

you ask about the proud going the rock the others are the present which gives you it gives you possibility if you are lucky enough i was lucky enough that after twenty years could go back that you got back. and you are able to look on everything what you knew different and different mine and i get to practice every day i took three four five streets alone i walk alone and i was looking like for the first on the contrary the train you perfectly. do you know the home in front. of an apartment in prague i had i have two apartments no one the one in the factory in the communist. parents we have still have study online in c.t. i got in and then. i can say that i love liking place both are

beautiful and very different and then splice that i look on these beautiful. very different like and i can tell you i have these two players but if i come there if i open that there are cinder brock i think it's fantastic but if a leaf i'm not sorry to leave it all on the white house anyway when you come you know it's a visitor you coming home when you come to prague is a true yes i would correct you. what is the home. for me the whole. river you lay your head i thank you thank you very much for being with us and i hope muska will be your home for the next couple of days later mike thanks just a reminder that my guest today was young codell can do for the graph the soviet invasion into czech and slovak to get back to ninety six teams and that's it for

now from all of us here if you want to have your sales force might have some of them are actually interviewed next time just drop me a line of al green of party t.v. dot are you let's keep spotlight interactive will be back with more personal comment on what's going on in town for question until then stay on our team can take thank you very much for that.

machine soon which brightened if you move the song from the phones to the branch and the. stone totty dot com.

twenty five dead and three hundred injured egypt's military rulers were in an investigation into the deadly its rides in cairo as a revolution in fierce clashes between christians and security forces. as european leaders and work against the clock to try to save you from economic disaster russia says it could help both treat eurozone economies by buying up debt but only up to brussels produces a clear strategy on how to exit the crisis. out and he will treat activists increase the pressure as growth has gathered pace broadly do accents read to other countries while demonstrators accuse police of bully boy tactics and making groundless to read. up next to the annual show and among today's guest is one of the occupy wall street overdyes as she is in the studio in washington d.c. to discuss how the act it's going to turn the occupy into a legislative action stay with us for that.