Camillo Fischer

Camillo Fischer (2005)

Camillo Fischer (born June 23, 1920 in Zittau / Saxony ; † November 2, 2009 in Straubing ) was a German photojournalist and artistic photographer . Konrad Adenauer called him " Don Camillo " because of his first name and his mischievous nature .

Until 1960

Fischer spent his school days in Berlin and Hamburg before serving as a soldier in the Navy during World War II and then becoming a prisoner of war . But in 1946 he was able to begin an agricultural apprenticeship and from 1949 to study agriculture at the University of Hohenheim . In 1953 he graduated as a qualified farmer there.

From 1954 to 1959 Fischer worked as an agricultural advisor. However, his passion for photography was already aroused and his skills developed to such an extent that he was able to work as a freelance photo journalist from 1960.

The work

Early on, he sought contact with the still young German democracy and the politicians of the “ Bonn Republic ”. Since he very soon refrained from taking his photos with a flashlight and was also known for his high degree of discretion, Bonn celebrities soon allowed him to take part in numerous events at which the press was otherwise undesirable.

In the following forty years, well over two million b / w recordings of local, national and international personalities were made in this way: John F. Kennedy , Konrad Adenauer , Willy Brandt , Walter Scheel , Herbert Wehner , Helmut Schmidt , Johannes Paul II. , Mother Teresa , the Dalai Lama , Nikita Khrushchev , Petra Kelly and countless others. Mostly very personal snapshots were taken, which allowed a look behind the scenes of politics, society and show business.

In the 1980s, Fischer became known for his unexpected (and mostly undesirable from the organizers' side) stage appearances, during which he loudly advocated the protection of the tropical rainforest . While the Bonn society got used to these short speeches or the microphone was switched off without further ado , Fischer had to spend a night in a US prison for this after he had chosen the garden of the White House in Washington, DC for such a performance .

In 1984 Fischer was appointed to the German Society for Photography (DGPh).

After most of the Bonn government moved to Berlin in 1999, Fischer turned back to artistic photography. He dedicated a detailed series of photos to the puppeteer Gerd J. Pohl or photographed tree structures in an atmospheric and expressive way . One of his personal favorite motifs is his wife Therese, 30 years his junior, with whom he has lived in Straubing since the end of 2005 .

In 1995, the Bonn journalist Thorsten-Gerd Hildenbrandt dedicated the radio series Yesterday to Camillo Fischer , which was broadcast on Radio Bonn / Rhein-Sieg as part of the local community radio . In these programs (52 minutes each), moderated by Georg Pakosch , the life of Fischer, his projects and his services were honored.

In 1997, Fischer was awarded the Rhineland Taler for his artistic merits .

Camillo Fischer's pictures have been shown in numerous exhibitions in Bonn, Berlin and Fischer's last place of residence, Straubing. His extensive negative archive is now in the city archive of the Federal City of Bonn.

literature

• Fischer, Camillo: Camillo Fischer. Photographer, Bonn. Star photos. For the 75th birthday. With a tribute from Klaus Honnef. Published by the city of Bonn. Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1995. ISBN 3-7927-1520-1
• Annette Heinz-Wessels: The Camillo Fischer Photo Archive in the Bonn City Archive , in: Photos and Collections in the Archive , Cologne 1997, pp. 53–61

Web links

• Report on an exhibition in 2004 with a picture by Camillo Fischer
• Literature by and about Camillo Fischer in the catalog of the German National Library