Bernd Heyden

Bernd Heyden (born August 23, 1940 in Swinoujscie ; † April 25, 1984 in Berlin ) was a German photographer . He became known for his photographs from the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg .

Life

Heyden was born as the son of a Berlin custom tailor. In 1946 the parents separated; he grew up with his mother in the Bötzow district of Prenzlauer Berg. In 1954 he left school with the 8th grade, then began an apprenticeship as a dressmaker. From 1957 he worked as an ironer in the clothing company VEB Treffmodelle , and until 1961 he also took on odd jobs in West Berlin and was an active cyclist. In 1962 he became the chauffeur of the rector of the University of Fine and Applied Arts in Berlin-Weißensee, and in 1963 he became the personal driver of the head of the Institute of Applied Arts, which in 1972 became the office of industrial design.

From 1965 he made his first attempts at photography, from 1967 he worked in the »Club of Young Photographers« founded by Arno Fischer and Sibylle Bergemann . The first publications began in 1969. Between 1970 and 1980, almost all of the surviving pictures from Prenzlauer Berg were created with well over 1000 motifs. In 1972 he received the bronze badge of honor for photography from the German Cultural Association . From 1972 to 1976 he worked formally as a laboratory assistant for the photographer Georg Eckelt . From 1972 he started de facto, from 1976 de jure with a freelance work as a photographer. In 1974 he was drafted into military service for six months. In 1976 he was accepted as a candidate and in 1978 as a member of the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR . After many years of alcoholism, he succumbed to a severe, presumably epileptic, attack in 1984.

Bernd Heyden's photographic estate is managed by the Preußischer Kulturbesitz (bpk) picture archive in Berlin.

Quote

“Bernd Heyden's pictures of Prenzlauer Berg are like diary sheets, so personal, so confessional. It is the view of the person involved, not that of the passer-by - not a pose, but a being. ”( Jutta Voigt , Sonntag, No. 22/1984)

Book publications

• Bernd Heyden - On the street. Published by the Berlin Photo Gallery. Berlin 1987
• Look into the country. Edited by Günter Drommer and Roger Melis. Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag, 1989, and Neuwied, Luchterhand, 1989 (selection of images)
• Prenzlauer Berg. A district between legend and everyday life .. Berlin: Nicolai, 1996 (selection of images)
• Ulrich Zieger: In the dark. With photographs by Bernd Heyden. Berlin: Druck-Haus Galrev, 1993
• Life in Prenzlauer Berg. A Berlin photo album. Published by the Cultural Office / Prenzlauer Berg Museum for Local History and Material Culture. Fürth: Städtebilder, photo archive and publishing house, 1998 (selection of images)
• The bare being. Workbook Thomas Brasch. With photos by Bernd Heyden. Edited by Martina Hanf and Kristin Schulz. (Photo editor: Grischa Meyer.) Berlin: Theater der Zeit, 2004
• Bernd Heyden: Berlin - corner of Prenzlauer. Photographs 1966–1980. Edited by Mathias Bertram in collaboration with the Prussian Cultural Heritage Image Archive. Leipzig: Lehmstedt Verlag, 2008
• Bernd Heyden: On the racetrack. Photographs 1966-1972 , Leipzig 2009, Lehmstedt Verlag

Exhibitions

• Berlin City Library, 1976
• Young Art Gallery, House of Young Talents, Berlin, 1978 (with leaflet)
• Galerie Sophienstraße, Berlin, 1981 (with leaflet)
• Greifen-Galerie Greifswald, 1981 (together with the jewelry designer Gerhild Freese)
• Photo gallery Berlin at Helsingforser Platz, 1987 (with catalog)

Literature and Sources

• Jutta Voigt: Bernd Heyden. In: Sunday. No. 22/1984.
• Stefan Orendt: About Bernd Heyden. In: Photo gallery Berlin (ed.): Bernd Heyden - On the street. Berlin 1987.
• Wolfgang Kil: Actually, “family photos”. The photographer Bernd Heyden. In: Sunday. No. 17/1987.
• G [rischa] M [eyer]: Biography of Bernd Heyden. In: Martina Hanf, Kristin Schulz (Ed.): The blanket being. Workbook Thomas Brasch. With photos by Bernd Heyden. Theater der Zeit, Berlin 2004.
• Mathias Bertram: Preliminary remark. In: Bernd Heyden: Berlin - corner of Prenzlauer. Photographs 1966–1980. Edited by Mathias Bertram in collaboration with the Prussian Cultural Heritage Image Archive. Lehmstedt Verlag, Leipzig 2008.
• Jutta Voigt: When the chimney sweeps were kissed. One place, two worlds - Prenzlauer Berg in Bernd Heyden's photos and today. In: Berliner Zeitung. October 4, 2008 (magazine)
• Gustav Seibt: Time capsule Prenzlauer Berg: Bernd Heyden's photographs. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. December 19, 2008
• Regina Mönch: The observer. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. January 24th, 2009 (pictures and times)

Web links

• Literature by and about Bernd Heyden in the catalog of the German National Library
• Pictures from and information about Bernd Heyden in the Deutsche Fotothek