Thomas Billhardt

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Thomas Billhardt (born May 2, 1937 in Chemnitz ) is a German photographer and publicist . He was particularly well known for his photos from Vietnam , Palestine and Nicaragua . His best-known photo is one from the Vietnam War , in which a slender Vietnamese fighter leads away a US soldier who is clearly superior to her physically.

Thomas Billhardt at the opening of an exhibition (2019)

Life

Advertising board in Berlin's Karl-Marx-Allee for the Vietnam photo exhibition by the photo reporter Thomas Billhardt, 1968

Billhardt was trained as a photographer from 1951 to 1954 by his mother Maria Schmid-Billhardt and studied at the technical school for applied arts in Magdeburg until 1957 . As a works photographer in the lignite opencast mine and the Grosskayna briquette factory 1957-58, he qualified as a photo master and was a publisher's photographer at the postcard publisher Bild und Heimat in Reichenbach in the Vogtland until 1959 . From 1959 to 1963 he completed his studies at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst (HGB) in Leipzig with a degree as a qualified photographer / photo designer.

In 1962 he became a member of the Association of German Journalists and worked as a freelance photographer from 1963 to 1971. In 1968 he joined the SED . From 1972 to 1981 he was working group leader at the German Advertising Agency (DEWAG) Berlin and from 1982 to 1989 head of the Billhardt studio at the publishing house for agitation and visual media. Since 1989 Billhardt has been a member of the German Association of Journalists and from 1990 to 2001 he was a member of the German Society for Photography . Since 1990 he has also been a member of the Bund Freischaffender Foto-Designer eV

In 1965 Billhardt received the Erich Weinert Medal , the art prize of the FDJ . In 1969 he received the GDR Art Prize , and in 1987 the GDR National Prize . He has had numerous international photo exhibitions in London, Moscow, West Berlin, Beirut, Kiev, Krakow, Szczecin, Wroclaw, Hanoi, Santiago de Chile, Valparaiso, Florence, Salzburg, Paris, Prague, Wittlich, etc. a. the UNICEF exhibition "Children of the World" in New York in 1988.

In April 2005 he was traveling for UNICEF Phillipines and from April 2008 to November 2008 he worked for UNICEF projects in Indonesia, Cambodia and China.

Billhardt sees himself as an artistic and political photographer. His archive until 1999 is owned by the Camera Work Berlin photo gallery, which honored him with a personal exhibition in 2017.

Thomas Billhardt is married and has two children. His son Steffen Billhardt is also an international photographer. Thomas Billhardt lived in Italy and until 2008 in Berlin. Now he lives in Kleinmachnow near Berlin.

Publications

  • T. Billhardt, Inge Trisch: Master Nadelöhr, Pittiplatsch children's books . Pössneck-Verlag 1963–1967
  • T. Billhardt, Eberhard Panitz : Christobal and the island . New life 1963
  • T. Billhardt, Druzhba Juri, Druzhba Valya (cosmonaut visit ). Publishing house culture and progress 1963
  • T. Billhardt, Sarah and Rainer Kirsch : Berlin - sunny side . New Life Publishing House , Berlin 1964
  • T. Billhardt, Brigitte Reimann : The green light of the steppe . New Life Publishing House 1965
  • T. Billhardt, Eberhardt Panitz: The seventh summer . Mitteldeutscher Verlag 1967
  • T. Billhardt, Sachachenko and Charlampiev: With the eyes of a friend . New life u. Maldaja Publishing House Moscow 1968
  • T. Billhardt, Heynowski and Scheumann : Pilots in pajamas . Kindler Verlag 1968 and Verlag der Nation 1968
  • T. Billhardt, Heynowski and Scheumann: The President in Exil Verlag der Nation 1969
  • T. Billhardt, Heynowski and Scheumann: Bye-bye Wheelus . Publishing House of the Nation 1971
  • T. Billhardt, Rose Nyland : Five pebbles in a brook . New life 1972
  • T. Billhardt, Eduard Klein & Eberhardt Hackethal: Santiago de Chile. Hope of a Continent , Volk und Welt Verlag , Berlin 1972
  • T. Billhardt, Henrik Gurkow: Schto nowogo meschdu oderom i reunom . Molodaja gwardija-Verlag Moscow 1972
  • T. Billhardt, Sara Lidmann: Faglarna i Nam Dinh Ordfront . Publisher Sweden 1973
  • T. Billhardt: Longing for Peace: Vietnam . Leipzig 1973
  • T. Billhardt, Peter Jacobs : Hanoi. The day before peace . New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1973
  • T. Billhardt, Peter Jacobs: The Palestinians . Hanau 1979
  • T. Billhardt, Peter Jacobs: Where is Palestine? . 1979
  • T. Billhardt, Peter Jacobs: The Tower of Pisa, New Life Publishing House 1976, is still standing
  • T. Billhardt, Peter Jacobs: The Drushbatrasse . New Life Publishing House 1978
  • T. Billhardt, Toscana imagini: Tuscan Government . 1975
  • T. Billhardt, Peter Jacobs: Italy with and without Belcanto . Brockhaus Verlag 1979
  • T. Billhardt: When the Muchachos came , Berlin 1982, military publisher
  • T. Billhardt, Ilja Glasunow : Düchanje Gorjachisch dnenm . Planeta Publishing House Moscow 1985
  • T. Billhardt, Peter Jacobs: Bengal fire . New Life Publishing House 1973
  • T. Billhardt, O. Mann: China. Impressions from a trip . 1989, ISBN 3-32500-208-0
  • T. Billhardt: Cambodia . Holograms Paris 1990
  • T. Billhardt, Irmgard Bockhorst: that won't leave you indifferent . Betel Verlag 1992
  • T. Billhardt, Marta Rafael: Mit dir-für dich Verlag für die Frau 1973
  • T. Billhardt, G. Bellmann: Die Deutsche Alleenstrasse, Between Rügen and Rheinsberg , Ullstein 1996. ISBN 3-55006-904-9
  • T. Billhardt, U. Schmid: Children have rights . Votum Verlag 1997, ISBN 3-92654-940-8 , Ullsteinverlag 1997
  • T. Billhardt, Annemarie Stoltenberg : In the footsteps of Elisabeth von Arnim on Rügen
  • T. Billhardt, Kerstin Hensel (texts): Everything was like that, everything was different . Kiepenheuer & Witsch 1999, ISBN 3-37801-035-5
  • T. Billhardt, Brigitte Reimann: The green light of the steppe . New edition of Taschenbuch-Verlag 2000
  • T. Billhardt: Alexanderplatz in Berlin-Mitte . Das Neue Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89793-031-5
  • T. Billhardt and Steffen Billhardt, K. Sinha and David Mayo: Raw . Clearview ISBN 978-1908337122 , 2012
  • Steffen Lüddemann: Thomas Billhardt Photography , Braus, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86228-048-3 .

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Billhardt, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photographer and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH May 2, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Chemnitz