Fred Herzog: Modern Color

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Fred Herzog is the most comprehensive publication on the work of this important photographer to date. Herzog also had the vision, and courage, to shoot in color when virtually all serious art photography was in black and white. Fred Herzog might not be a household name in the photography world, but his work holds its own against the likes of Walker Evans and William Eggleston, two photographers with whom Herzog shares an aesthetic. 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. 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.

Despite slight shifts in social, cultural and technological parameters, the world now looks much the same as it did in the ’60s and ’70s. 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.In this regard, his photography can be seen as a precursor to the New Color photographers of the 1970s. The young German immigrant was fascinated by all aspects of Canadian life and set out to document it with his camera. 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.

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.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. Two of Herzog’s big influences were Walker Evans, who documented the effects of the Great Depression in the U. 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.

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. Scenes of society in the macrocosm, rather than showing us nothing, showed us everything: race relations, urban alienation, gender politics and class distinctions. In this respect, his photographs can be seen as prefiguring the New Color photographers of the 1970s.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. 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 an early indication of the "New Color" photographers of the seventies. In this respect, his photographs can be seen as a pre-figuration of the New Color photographers of the seventies. In his work, we’re shown a world we recognise, anachronistic as some of it may be, yet we relate to it.