60/150: Fred Herzog was a street photography colour pioneer

A pioneer of colour street photography, Fred Herzog eventually became internationally known but always held place as a beloved chronicler of life in mid-20th century Vancouver. He died in 2019 at the age of 88.

The bandaged man is one of Herzog’s most famous photographs:

“I did not plan this shot. In fact, I shot it from the hip while walking, which is why the man’s head is
cut off at the top. In retrospect, it makes the picture more interesting. I don’t know who the man is – he did not see me take the picture – but I like his typical American stance. It is elegant, assured and oblivious to the Band-Aids, bandage and sloppy dress.” – more about the shot, here

Herzog was well known on the west coast in the 50s and 60s but it wasn’t until a major retrospective at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2007 that interest in his work widened. Previously, people had known his work only through slides, and he was never able to satisfactorily make prints from them.

But the arrival of digital inkjet printing enabled Herzog to finally exhibit his body of early color street photography. The 21st-century technology made exhibition-quality prints possible, leading to his photographs being exhibited at galleries and art fairs around the world.

Herzog, a German immigrant who moved to Vancouver in 1953, was self-taught and worked as a medical photographer at St. Paul’s hospital until 1990. By nights and weekends, he roamed his adopted city – and later photographed scenes around the world.

Herzog used Kodachrome in his work, a type of colour film produced by Kodak and known for showing intense colours.   Herzog’s Vancouver photographs are awash with vibrant color, notes Laurence Miller Gallery in New York. . . “they are complex, mysterious, exuberant, and full of life, much like the city he photographed.”

View this video rotation of Fred Herzog’s street photography on YouTube

The estate of Fred Herzog at Equinox Gallery, here.

A biographical article in the Tyee, here.

Herzog on Artsy, here

A review of his book, at National Gallery of Canada, here.

This is No. 60 in 150 Artists, an ongoing series on Canadian artists you should know.