His photographs trace the city’s development over half a century. The photographer was most drawn to ordinary city dwellers, small shops with their vibrant storefronts and signs, and modest homes, all before they were replaced by dense, uniform high-rises. But the defining feature of all his photos was colour. At the time, using colour film required special and expensive processing techniques to develop properly. For this reason, professional photography was still considered the domain of black and white. But this is precisely what allowed Fred Herzog to stand out from his peers. More at vancouveriski.
The Photographer’s Early Life
Fred Herzog was born on September 21, 1930, in Stuttgart, Germany. In 1941, he lost his mother, who died after a severe illness with paratyphoid fever. His father passed away a few years later, and Fred was raised by his grandparents. He inherited his first camera, a Zeiss model, from his uncle, though he later decided to buy a Kodak Retina I. He loved to shoot landscapes, people, and especially athletes. At sixteen, he began working in a small hardware store. Seeing a lack of opportunity for growth in Germany, Fred decided to move to Canada. Back in his school days, while bored in class, he had found a geography textbook with a photograph of the Vancouver waterfront that captivated him.
He settled in Vancouver in 1953. To make a living, he took a job on the CPR line, working aboard steamships. It was during this time that he became interested in photography and began studying photo magazines.
A few years later, Fred landed a job as a medical photographer at St. Paul’s Hospital. He spent most of his working hours in operating rooms and with patients, documenting various conditions and interesting cases for teaching materials. Fred kept his camera with him even in his free time, heading out into the streets to capture moments of everyday city life.
After a few years of work, he was promoted to head of the photography and video department at the University of British Columbia’s Department of Biomedical Communications. In 1967, he was invited to teach fine art photography at Simon Fraser University, and two years later, he was offered a position at the University of British Columbia. In 1987, he received the Canadian Medical Photographer of the Year award.
A Personal Photographic Style
Although Fred Herzog took up photography at a fairly young age, he only began to gain recognition among professional Canadian photographers when he was nearly 60. This was primarily due to his use of colour film at a time when professionals limited themselves to the black-and-white spectrum. Colour photography was mostly associated with advertising.
It wasn’t until Fred was in his 70s that printing technologies, using digital scanners and inkjet printers, could finally convey the texture and depth of his work’s colours.
To photograph the city, Fred Herzog wandered the streets searching for interesting storefronts, loud parties, busy salons, workers, and idlers. He always shot people candidly to fully capture their body language. The photographer was convinced that once people notice the camera, the picture is impossible to recreate—it vanishes forever.
It was only in 2007, when the photographer was 76 years old, that his first solo exhibition was held, bringing him widespread recognition. Residents were able to see their old city—a city that has long since disappeared—in full colour.