Fred Herzog

2014 Audain Prize for the Visual Arts

Fred Herzog is a Vancouver-based photographer widely considered to be a pioneer of artistic colour photography. He is known for capturing the connection between working class people and the city around them in vibrant photos that pop with life.

During World War II, a teenaged Fred Herzog and his family evacuated their hometown of Stuttgart, Germany. After both his parents died during the war, Fred Herzog left school to work as a seaman on ships. In 1952, he immigrated to Canada and eventually settled in Vancouver in 1953. As a teenager in Germany he was always interested in photography. After moving to Canada, he began to pursue it more seriously.

In the 1950s and 1960s, when photography was almost exclusively done in black and white, Fred Herzog’s use of colour was considered unusual. The majority of his work uses Kodachrome, a colour slide film known for being difficult to process. His body of work gained him widespread recognition for being at the forefront of artistic colour photography.

Fred Herzog worked as a medical photographer for St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver and the Department of Biomedical Communications at the University of British Columbia. From 1967 to 1969, he taught photography at Simon Fraser University, after which, he taught at the University of British Columbia until 1974.

During his tenure at the University of British Columbia, he taught Theodore Wan and Christos Dikeakos; both later became highly regarded photographers.
Fred Herzog has exhibited in group and solo shows in Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto, New York and Germany. In 2014, Fred Herzog received the Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts. His works are collected by the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Audain Art Museum.