After enrolling in the Prague Technical University in 1961 to become an aeronautical engineer, Josef Koudelka started photographing the city’s gypsies and theaters. He became a full-time photographer in 1967 and joined Magnum in 1971. For the DATAR Mission in 1986, he used a panoramic camera to photograph industrial and urban areas of the North, Lorraine and Paris. He continued that approach for other commissions, such as Transmanche and the Conservatoire du Littoral.