Fred Herzog: Modern Color

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Until that point, so few photographers had taken up the idea of simply touring the everyday streets and capturing what they saw.

Two of Herzog’s big influences were Walker Evans, who documented the effects of the Great Depression in the U. Fred Herzog is known for his distinctive approach to color photography in the 1950s and 1960s, a time when the art form was almost solely represented by black and white imagery. In this respect, his photographs can be seen as prefiguring the New Color photographers of the 1970s. There’s defiance in the work of Herzog, whose images focused largely on the working class of Vancouver, Canada.In his work, we’re shown a world we recognise, anachronistic as some of it may be, yet we relate to it. Herzog started taking pictures in Germany in 1950 where, as part of a youth group who every summer went hiking in the Alps, he was given a Kodak Retina I camera. This book brings together more than 230 images, many of which have never been reproduced before, and includes essays composed by respected authors David Campany and Hans-Michael Koetzle.

However, technology only allowed him to make archival pigment prints that match the color and intensity of the Kodachrome slide in the past decade. For more than 50 years, the Canadian photographer worked almost exclusively with Kodachrome slide film, and it is only in the past decade that technological advances have enabled him to produce archival pigment prints that match the extraordinary color and intensity of Kodachrome slides. Fred Herzog is best known for his unusual use of color in the 1950s and 1960s, a time when fine art photography was almost exclusively associated with black and white shots. The real pioneer of the medium seems to change depending on whom you ask (most people, perhaps rightly, would say William Eggleston) but let’s allow some space for another name: Fred Herzog. In this respect, his photographs can be seen as a pre-figuration of the New Color photographers of the seventies.Fred Herzog, as we said, is known for his unusual use of color in the fifties and sixties, a time when art photography was almost exclusively associated with black and white imagery.

Fred Herzog is best known for his unusual use of color photography in the 1950s and 1960s, a time when art photography was almost exclusively associated with black-and-white imagery. In 1953, decades before William Eggleston and Stephen Shore established color photography as a serious medium for art photography, Fred Herzog shot his first roll of color film. The most comprehensive book yet published on the Canadian color-photography pioneer Fred Herzog is best known for his unusual use of color photography in the 1950s and 1960s, a time when art photography was almost exclusively associated with black-and-white imagery. This monograph brings together more than 230 recordings, many of which have never been reproduced before, and also includes contributions from celebrated authors such as David Campany and Hans-Michael Koetzle.For over fifty years, the Canadian photographer exclusively used Kodachrome slide film, and only in the last decade have advances in technology enabled the production of archival pigment prints that faithfully match the remarkable color and vibrancy of the Kodachrome slides. Despite slight shifts in social, cultural and technological parameters, the world now looks much the same as it did in the ’60s and ’70s. In his spare time, he walked the streets of Vancouver with his camera taking photographs of people, buildings and whatever scenes caught his eye. Fred Herzog is known for his unusual use of colour in the 50s and 60s, when art photography was almost exclusively associated with black and white imagery.

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. Take a stroll through Herzog’s streets and you find a place awash with neon signs, Coca-Cola adverts, yellow light against thick shadow, vintage cars, billboards and the rest.By taking color rather than black and white photographs, he made his street scenes seem much more modern. It was through focusing on the everyday in the US that Eggleston was able to reveal the deeper truths of the world. What was striking to Herzog at this time was that he was beginning to identify a genre that had perhaps not yet found its definition: street photography.