Fred Herzog : Photographs

by Coupland, Douglas; Milroy, Sarah; Wall, Jeff; Gochmann, Claudia

• ISBN13: 9781553655589
• ISBN10: 1553655583
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-11-15
• Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre

Summary

The definitive book about the stunning oeuvre of a pioneer of colour photography -- Vancouver's Fred Herzog. For more than five decades, Fred Herzoghas focused his lens on street life, and his striking colour photographs -- of vacant lots, second-hand shops, neon signs and working-class people -- evoke nostalgia in an older generation and inspire wide-eyed revelation in a younger one. The images that we now consider iconic once relegated Herzogto the margins: his bold use of colour was unusual in the 1950s and '60s, a time when art photography was almost exclusively associated with black-and-white imagery. Fred Herzoghas worked with Kodachrome slide film for over 50 years, but only in the past few years has technology allowed him to make archival pigment photographic prints of exceptional colour and intensity. Fred Herzog: Photographsshowcases this innovative artist's impressive collection in a beautifully crafted volume. Providing authoritative texts are four titans of the art community: Claudia Gochmann's introduction anchors Fred Herzog's place in the history of photography, Sarah Milroyshares a conversation with Herzog, Douglas Couplandcomments on what Herzog's colour photos reveal about Vancouver and Jeff Wallfocuses his photographer's eye on a single Fred Herzogimage.

Author Biography

Fred Herzog was born in 1930 in Germany and moved to Vancouver in 1953. After a three-year stint as a sea man, he begin working as a medical photographer, while still finding time to hone his art, choosing colour film as a way to capture urban vitality. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Herzog taught in the fine arts departments at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University. He has participated in major exhibitions in Canada-including at the National Gallery of Canada, Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery and UBC Fine Arts Gallery --and around the world, from the Laurence Miller Gallery in New York to the C/O Berlin in Germany. Douglas Coupland was born on a Canadian NATO base in Germany and raised in Vancouver, where he still resides. Among his best-selling novels are Generation X, Microserfs, and Miss Wyoming. Coupland also exhibits his sculpture in galleries around the world, indulging in design experiments that include everything from launching collections of furniture to futurological consulting for Stephen Spielberg. Sarah Milroy, former editor of Canadian Art magazine, is an art critic who has written for journals, magazines and newspapers, including the National Post and the Globe and Mail. She lives in Toronto, Ontario. Claudia Gochmann is an art historian and writer based in Berlin. She has written for Photography Now and is the co-author of ArchitekTour: Usedom. Jeff Wall is best known for his large-scale back-lit cibachrome photographs and art-historical writing. He has exhibited around the world, including at the MoMA and the Tate Modern.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Jeff Wall
Fred Herzog: Photographs
A Walk with Fred by Sarah Milroy
Pioneer of Colour by Claudia Gochmann
Fred Herzog's Vancouver by Douglas Coupland