Fred Herzog: Modern Color

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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. In this respect, his photographs can be seen as an early indication of the "New Color" photographers of the seventies. 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. However, technology only allowed him to make archival pigment prints that match the color and intensity of the Kodachrome slide in the past decade.

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. By taking color rather than black and white photographs, he made his street scenes seem much more modern.In his work, we’re shown a world we recognise, anachronistic as some of it may be, yet we relate to it. 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. Fred Herzog is the most comprehensive publication on the work of this important photographer to date. That which we find, the work and the use of the people out there, it’s natural, that’s what ordinary people do, that interests me.

Despite slight shifts in social, cultural and technological parameters, the world now looks much the same as it did in the ’60s and ’70s. 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. 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. There’s defiance in the work of Herzog, whose images focused largely on the working class of Vancouver, Canada.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. 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. Herzog also had the vision, and courage, to shoot in color when virtually all serious art photography was in black and white. In the 1950s and 1960s, many in the art world didn’t take color photography seriously, considering it amateurish and garish.

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.

Herzog’s work has much in common with William Eggleston, who eschewed big scenes in favour of the quotidian. This book brings together over 230 images, many never before reproduced, and features essays by acclaimed authors David Campany, Hans-Michael Koetzle and artist Jeff Wall. In this respect, his photographs can be seen as a pre-figuration of the New Color photographers of the seventies. In this respect, his photographs can be seen as prefiguring the New Color photographers of the 1970s.