© Fred Herzog
It’s understandable if you haven’t heard of Fred Herzog. He is now 81 years old and it was only five years ago his work began to find acclaim. Last month a book of his work “Fred Herzog: Photographs” was released and it’s beautiful. Each image was carefully selected to show Vancouver the way it felt to a German immigrant who fell in love with the city based on a photograph he saw in a geography textbook.
Part of the appeal of Fred Herzog is that he photographed street scenes in colour when most of his contemporaries were using black and white. He also used Kodachrome which in the beginning was seen as “the film that brought color photography to the amateur” and that might have been why Herzog’s work wasn’t taken seriously at the time (and he shot slide film). This brings me to one of the reasons why I’ve fallen in love with his work. In this day and age when many of us are clambering for recognition for our work, Herzog–by all accounts–never cared about impressing others. He made images for himself–100,000 of them. Many of his friends are artists and creatives that live in this city and have known about his work for many years. It was only recently that they managed to convince him to share his work.
Herzog worked full-time as a medical photographer at the University of British Columbia and made his images of Vancouver over a period of more than 50 years. He said: “I wanted to show the world the way it is. By doing it only a few hours a day and not every day, I had the freedom to do what I wanted to do“. How strange it is that the life I live today–the one I feel keeps me restricted from following my dream–is one that gave Herzog the freedom to create a substantial body of work. Sometimes all we need is a different perspective to appreciate the advantages of our own situation instead of believing the grass is greener on the other side.
I could say much more about Fred Herzog (and probably will again). In the meantime, if you live in Canada, I will point you to the Knowledge Network. Click on the “Watch Now” tab and then select the link under Fred Herzog. For those of you who don’t live in this wonderful country, here is an interview Fred did with a local newspaper. There is a lot here we can learn from a lifelong photographer but perhaps Fred said it best: “I think I would have had a less interesting life if success had come earlier”. It is from that interesting life all these wonderful images have been harvested.
I watched this a couple of weeks ago, but was already aware of his work a little. I didn’t know anything about him or his background before watching this, but one can see in his work that he loves Vancouver’s people and neighbourhoods at a very micro level. Few pictures of skylines and mountains but lots of superb pictures of kids playing in front of long-gone corner stores and guys hanging out at the local barber shop. Fabulous stuff!
Let me know if you’d like to borrow the book Dave. I think you’d enjoy it. I enquired about the prints for sale at the Equinox and they are pricey. I have to start saving now and maybe I’ll own one while Fred is still around.
That is one awesome image. I’ll have to look into this guy some more. Love their expressions.
Definitely worth spending more time with Fred. Let me know if you’d like some more links and resources. He has done quite a few interviews and they are all quite revealing.
A baby at the Casino? There’s more to that picture than you might think. Thanks for sharing. I’ll have to look up more of his work.
It’s the kind of image you can stare at for a long time and come back to time and time again to find a new story every time. You might be inspired to do something similar in your town!
“By doing it only a few hours a day and not every day, I had the freedom to do what I wanted to do.”
There’s an element of that which rings so true of photography in my own daily life. I’ve always wondered whether I’d like to be a professional photographer, and I can’t say, “yes” with conviction. This surprises me when I stop to think about it, as I’d like nothing more than to take photos for a living. But professional photographer (term insinuates the business, client handling, financial etc aspects)? Dunno. Maybe, maybe not? Right now, I enjoy the fact that I can shoot just for me, whatever I like, deliver it however i like, pursue my little projects on the side.
But there’s an undeniable appeal to the going-pro part, not least of which is being paid to actually create something. That is the dream.
But yes, this waffling brought to you by the singular thought of “you know, he does have a point.”