The Bookshelf #10 - Fred Herzog Modern Colour
MODERN COLOUR
FRED HERZOG
Published By Hatje Kantz Verlag
Available on Amazon from £28.17
Welcome to the 10th instalment of my “Bookshelf series”.
As a somewhat “lapsed” street photographer, this is a book that I go back to time and time again. I think of the reasons for this is that the images are shot in Vancouver, the place he emigrated to from Germany in the 50s. Vancouver isn’t a city I know from either films, photobooks or having visited and I like the unfamiliarity this book present me with.
The photos in this book were shot at a time when colour photography was still viewed with a certain “snobbery” from the art establishment, and they were still firmly of the opinion that colour images were for amateurs or commercial photography and that in order to be considered as fine art, photographs should be black and white. This book curates the best of Herzog’s colour photography and presents in beautifully.
The book presents Herzog who saw the beauty and artistry in the every day. Expect to find streets sign, shop fronts, neon signs, cafes and advertising to name but a few of the subjects. There’s a big focus on working class neighbourhoods and that makes everything feel very relatable.
What makes Modern Color significant is that it positions Herzog as an important figure in the development of colour photography before the better-known “New Color” photographers of the 1970s. His images do not feel staged or overly polished; instead, they capture the visual energy of everyday urban life. The colour is not decorative, but central to the meaning of the photographs. Red shop signs, yellow cars, neon lettering and weathered building fronts all become part of the social and emotional texture of the city. Put simply, Herzog is showing, in these images, that the use of colour is essential. Not a gimmick and not there solely because it looks nice. It is shot largely on Kodachrome, and that’s apparent from the second you open the book. The colours are rich, intense and saturated.
The book is also important because Herzog’s work was not widely appreciated during the period in which many of the photographs were made. Kodachrome slides were difficult to print accurately at the time, and it was only much later, with developments in archival pigment printing, that the richness and intensity of the original slides could be properly reproduced.
Modern Color is both a celebration of Fred Herzog’s distinctive vision and a valuable study of mid-century urban life. It would appeal to anyone interested in street photography, documentary photography, colour theory, urban history or photographers such as Saul Leiter, William Eggleston, Helen Levitt and Garry Winogrand. For photographers, it is especially useful as a reminder that compelling images can be found in ordinary places when colour, timing, composition and observation come together.
You can grab your copy on Amazon by clicking any of the images on this page, or by clicking here.
