archival pigment print
Research (book from library: Fred Herzog Photographs, published by C|O Berlin):
-Fred Herzog (1930-2019) was a German Canadian photographer who emigrated to Vancouver in 1953. He took coloured street photographs of Vancouver, using almost exclusively Kodachrome slide film (one of the early commercial colour films, know for it’s high resolution, life like colour, and broad tonal range).
-Herzog challenged the notion in the art world that colour photography was only for commercial and amateur use. His work shows that colour photography is not only as valid as black and white photography (something that isn’t much of an argument today, but was a big deal during the mid 20th century) but that colour can add elements to a scene that would otherwise be missing with black-and-white photography. Herzog is regarded as one of the early masters of colour photography.
-“Herzog’s photographs demonstrate that colour photography is not the addition of colour to a traditional black-and-white approach, but an autonomous means of expression.”
-Herzog took photographs of Vancouver in an attempt to discover the city and preserve his impressions of it. There is an overlying theme in his work of postwar urban culture, which branches off into various pictorial representations such as people on the street, old local businesses, and displays/advertising.
-Beginning in the 1960s Herzog would work as a medical photographer alongside his street photography.
(A few) notable Herzog photographs:
-Used Car Lot (1970)
-Mom (1959)
-Chung Wah (1960)
-His Last Bubble Gum (1960)
-AI Western Second Hand Store (1958)
-Paper Vendor (1959)
-Bargain Shop (1962)
-Lucy/Georgia (1968)