Fred Herzog

Who is Fred Herzog?

Fred Herzog is a photographer known primarily for his photos of life in Vancouver, Canada. He worked professionally as a medical photographer. He was the associate director of the UBC Department of Biomedical Communication, and also taught at Simon Fraser University.

He grew up in Stuttgart, but was evacuated from the city during the aerial bombardment of the Second World War. His parents died during the war, after which he dropped out of school and found work as a seaman on ships. He emigrated to Canada in 1952, living briefly in Toronto and Montreal before moving to Vancouver in 1953. He had taken casual photos since childhood, and began to take it seriously after moving to Canada.

His work focuses primarily on "ordinary" people, the working class, and their connections to the city around them. He worked primarily with slide film, which limited his ability to exhibit, and also marginalized him somewhat as an artist in the 1950s and 60s when most work was in Black and White. However, he has been increasingly recognized in recent decades. His work has appeared in numerous books, and various galleries, including the Vancouver Art Gallery.