2637 - Saudek, Jan. Untitled. (Self-Portrait with a Pickaxe in the Cemetery). Gelatin silver print with brown paper tape border. Vintage. Signed "JAN SAUDEK" in silver pen at the bottom right. 1976. Sheet dimensions: 39.8 x 30.5 cm.

Saudek, Jan. Untitled. (Self-Portrait with a Pickaxe in the Cemetery). Gelatin silver print with brown paper tape border. Vintage. Signed "JAN SAUDEK" in silver pen at the bottom right. 1976. Sheet dimensions: 39.8 x 30.5 cm. An unusual self-portrait by the Czech photographer Jan Saudek (b. 1935), who is otherwise famous for his idiosyncratic nude photographs in the style of early fin-de-siècle erotic photography. - In 1975, Saudek had photographed his Jewish father—who had been interned at the Theresienstadt concentration camp during World War II—standing in a cemetery with a Star of David pinned to his lapel. In this photograph, likely taken after his father’s death, the photographer is seen walking toward the gravestones of the same cemetery, bare-chested and with a pickaxe slung over his shoulder. - The paper mount is slightly rubbed and has a small tear in the lower right corner; it is minimally wavy. #