France
- Artist: Josef Koudelka
- Date: 1976
- Medium: Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
- Dimensions: image: 364 × 544 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “France” by Josef Koudelka, a 1976 gelatin‑silver print that sits quietly among the other pages of his Exiles series. The image is deceptively simple – a modest breakfast of cheese, milk and an apple, placed atop a copy of the Herald Tribune. The newspaper is printed with headlines that capture the turbulent world of the 1970s: the Soweto massacre, a drought in the United Kingdom, and a diplomatic spat in China. By juxtaposing the everyday breakfast with these global headlines, Koudelka comments on the alienation of exile – an outsider in his own country, yet still very much part of a larger, chaotic narrative. The black‑and‑white tones and the grainy texture of the silver print give the scene a stark, almost documentary feel, as if the viewer is peeking into a quiet, yet profound moment of a man constantly on the move.
See it in person
France is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
