 eginning
a career that spanned six decades in Germany in 1928, Fritz Henle traveled
through the Mediterranean, India, China, and Japan in the pre-war 1930s,
documenting those travels with his trusted Rolleiflex, before emigrating
to the US in 1936. Passionately involved with the relatively new medium
of photography, Henle was at once a successful freelance photojournalist,
working for Life beginning in 1937; a top fashion photographer
in New York during the 40s and early 50s; a portrait photographer sought
after by notables of the time; a well traveled documentarist whose work
took him to Asia in the pre-war 30s, later to Mexico, Paris, throughout
the USA, and to the Caribbean in the late 40s, where he traveled the
islands before making his home on St. Croix in 1958. irelessly
prolific, Henle published nineteen books of his work, from his first
Japan in 1936, to Casals in 1975. His photographs
were published over the decades in countless magazines; among them cover
stories for Life, fashion editorials shot for Harperšs Bazaar,
Mademoiselle, Town & Country and others,
features in photography periodicals, illustrations in the Travel section
of the Sunday New York Times. Numerous one person exhibitions
of his photographs, beginning with This is Japan in Tokyo
in 1936, helped to establish him as a creative visionary with an exceptional
technique, a keen sense of striking composition, and a determination
to capture the beauty in life. Arguably one of the best known photographers
in America by the mid 1950s, Fritz Henle, who died in 1993, has been
described by the late photo historian Helmut Gernsheim as ŗthe last
of the great classical photographers.
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 "The Woman and the God" Paris, 1938 |
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 "Nieves" Mexico, 1947 |
 "Trading Schooner" St. Croix, 1950 |
 "Hurricane" Tobago, 1960 |
| All photographs
Copyright © 2004 fritzhenle.com |
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xhibits
of photographs from Fritz Henlešs long and varied career are a popular
event at Maria Henle Studio. Books and catalogs of his work are available
for sale, and fine archival photographs can be made to order from
the extensive collection of his original negatives.
