Fred Herzog: Modern Color

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In this respect, his photographs can be seen as an early indication of the "New Color" photographers of the seventies. In his spare time, he walked the streets of Vancouver with his camera taking photographs of people, buildings and whatever scenes caught his eye. S., and Robert Frank, whose photographs were published in the influential book The Americans and who also died Monday.

It was the best film and most reliable development, although he had to wait an age for the results as he sent them to Palo Alto, California, or Rochester, New York. In this regard, his photography can be seen as a precursor to the New Color photographers of the 1970s. 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. Digital inkjet printing has enabled Herzog to finally satisfactorily make prints from his slides and exhibit his important early color street photography. The Canadian photographer worked almost exclusively with Kodachrome slide film for over 50 years, and only in the past decade has technology allowed him to make archival pigment prints that match the exceptional color and intensity of the Kodachrome slide.

And a lot of English gentlemen did serious and beautiful photography… But I didn’t have time for that. Roger Bamber’s 50-year career spanned everything from the Falklands War to Live Aid, but it was in his home city that he found most of his inspiration, as Ailsa McWhinnie discovers. 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. 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. 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.

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. 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.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. Until that point, so few photographers had taken up the idea of simply touring the everyday streets and capturing what they saw. It was through focusing on the everyday in the US that Eggleston was able to reveal the deeper truths of the world. Furthermore, his shots were taken using mostly Kodachrome slide film, meaning he was limited in terms of actually getting to exhibit his images in public.

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. In this respect, his photographs can be seen as a prototype for the New Color photographers of the 1970s.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. Professionally employed as a medical photographer, he spent his evenings and weekends photographing the city and its inhabitants in vibrant color. In his work, we’re shown a world we recognise, anachronistic as some of it may be, yet we relate to it.

Herzog’s big breakout occurred late in life when The Vancouver Art Gallery held the first major retrospective of his work in 2007: Fred Herzog Vancouver Photographs curated by Grant Arnold. There’s defiance in the work of Herzog, whose images focused largely on the working class of Vancouver, Canada. Herzog also had the vision, and courage, to shoot in color when virtually all serious art photography was in black and white. 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.In this respect, his photographs can be seen as prefiguring the New Color photographers of the 1970s. By taking color rather than black and white photographs, he made his street scenes seem much more modern.