Fred Herzog was born in Germany in 1930 and immigrated to Vancouver, Canada, in 1953. Herzog’s use of colour film in the 1950s and ’60s was revolutionary, coming long before colour photography came to be regarded as a serious medium for art or documentary photography. He is now being reconsidered in the history of street photography in relation to Saul Leiter, Helen Levitt, Ernst Haas, …
The German-born artist’s Kodachrome images captured the colour of the city’s streets.
Pioneer of colour photography who acquired almost mythic status in his adopted home city of Vancouver, Canada
Fred Herzog was born in Germany in 1930 and immigrated to Vancouver, Canada, in 1953. Herzog’s use of colour film in the 1950s and ’60s was revolutionary, coming long before colour photography came to be regarded as a serious medium for art or documentary photography. He is now being reconsidered in the history of street photography in relation to Saul Leiter, Helen Levitt, Ernst Haas, …
Fred Herzog was born in September 21, 1930 Stuttgart, Germany and then later moved to Vancouver, Canada. Initially he started as a medical photographer in the department of Bio-medical Communication and was taught at the Simon Fraser University.
A thought-provoking blend of high fashion, art and culture brought to you by the creators of AnOther Magazine
Fred Herzog was born in September 21, 1930 Stuttgart, Germany and then later moved to Vancouver, Canada. Initially he started as a medical photographer in the department of Bio-medical Communication and was taught at the Simon Fraser University.
Learn more about Fred Herzog and discover their selected works featured at Equinox Gallery.
Border Crossings is a cultural magazine edited and published in Winnipeg. A local, international magazine, it is now in its 35th year of continuous publication. Edited by Meeka Walsh, it investigates contemporary culture through a combination of articles, reviews, interviews and portfolios of photographs and drawings.
Fred Herzog is known for his unusual use of colour in the fifties and sixties, a time when art photography was almost exclusively associated with black and white imagery. The Canadian photographe...
A thought-provoking blend of high fashion, art and culture brought to you by the creators of AnOther Magazine
Fred Herzog was born in September 21, 1930 Stuttgart, Germany and then later moved to Vancouver, Canada. Initially he started as a medical photographer in the department of Bio-medical Communication and was taught at the Simon Fraser University.
A beautiful new book sheds light on one of colour photography’s lesser-known, but most extraordinary pioneers
Fred Herzog :Mom's shoes, 1969 Old Man Main,1959 Queen Elizabeth,1977 Princess Patricia,1957 Staircase, 1958 Second Hand Shop,1961 Girl on Steps, 1959 Granville Street, 1960 Pier & Marine Building,1953 Two Boys,1960 White Lunch Granville,1959 Kuo Kong Silk,1967 Bogners Grocery,1960 Orange Cars…
Now 76, Fred Herzog began photographing Vancouver in the late 50's. In some ways a classic Street Photographer, Herzog did one thing that was different - he worked seriously in colour. He has a dazzling collection of photographs and clearly, very early on, had come to grips with many of the aspects of working in colour that weren't trumpeted elsewhere until perhaps 10 or 15 years later. He has a grasp of colour that in many ways preceeds the likes of Shore and even Eggleston. He also expresses some interesting views on photography (the whole article is a good fun read) "Photographic finesse has its place, but it can also get in the way. I was trying to show vitality. The pictures are about content, and more content. And if there is no content, take no picture."It’s exactly the other way around now. 'Okay I’m going to take my clothes off, and I’m going to stand there in the nude, and I’m going to try and look lonely or profound.' • On choosing documentary street photography: "Nobody did that even in the U.S.A. I have often looked at American yearbooks and things, the American Photography colour yearbook, that was a big thing, I bought those. But they’re full of pretty pictures of women, some of them naked, some of them beautiful. Even the ones who are not naked look beautiful to me. Perhaps it’s my age. But there was no street photography. None done. And I did that, and I did it with a passion, and I did it with variety. You can see that now in the pictures." • On shooting in colour, at a time when all serious art photography was done in black and white:"First of all when you do black and white all have is the basic resource, a negative. That needs a lot of dancing around the darkroom and time and patience and energy. You should ideally be a man of leisure,an English gentleman. And a lot of English gentlemen did serious and beautiful photography. "But I didn’t have time for that. That’s one reason I did colour slides. I’d get 36 slides back, beautiful, finish.”" • On street photography and digital technology:"Timing in photography is almost everything. You have to pay attention to where the light comes from, you have to pay attention to your background. If your background is too loud, or makes too much of itself...that’s the problem of the photographic process. It records everything that’s in the viewfinder, whether it’s important or not.""All the good pictures that didn’t turn out good, it’s because of the background or because the light comes from one side or some other technical glitch. That’s the grace of these modern digital cameras.First of all everything that can go wrong is taken care of automatically. A person who’s completely ignorant of the photographic process can take photos." "And I say that respectfully. You don’t have to know anything, you press the button and you get a beautiful picture. That’s how it works out now. This is enormous progress. Because of that you’ll see now a flood of good pictures which we never dreamed we would see. I already get them in the e-mail." Still going strong, there is a major of his work show currently up at the Vancouver Art Gallery and Douglas & Mcintyre has published a book of his work.
Fred Herzog :Mom's shoes, 1969 Old Man Main,1959 Queen Elizabeth,1977 Princess Patricia,1957 Staircase, 1958 Second Hand Shop,1961 Girl on Steps, 1959 Granville Street, 1960 Pier & Marine Building,1953 Two Boys,1960 White Lunch Granville,1959 Kuo Kong Silk,1967 Bogners Grocery,1960 Orange Cars…
Accidental Mysteries for March 10, 2013 focuses on Fred Herzog's Kodachrome slides.
¿Color o blanco y negro? ¿Cuántas veces nos hemos hecho esa pregunta y hemos preguntado a otros el porqué de su elección? La cuestión, de tan repetitiva, puede parecer banal, o carente de importancia, pero no lo es en absoluto, ya que condiciona proyectos y carreras enteras. Quizá uno de los casos más claros sea […]
Over the past few years, it’s become clear that one of Vancouver’s newest art phenoms is also one of its most long-standing: the 82-year-old retired medical photographer and photographic flâneur Fred Herzog. Since the early 1950s, Herzog has framed the changing face of urban life. Ranging from the docks and laneways of Vancouver to the […]
