Dietmar Dünhöft

Dietmar Dünhöft (born March 13, 1929 in Gnadenfrei ; † December 22, 1976 in Cologne ) was a German photographer in the mid- 20th century .

life and work

Dünhöft began to be interested in photography during his training as an actor and stage dancer in Zwickau . After moving to Cologne in 1954, he met the freelance photographer Elsbeth Gropp there and completed an apprenticeship with her. During his training, he was allowed to use the studio for his own work in the evenings and on weekends, and it was here that he completed his first assignment: application photos of dancers from the Cologne Opera.

In 1961, after completing his apprenticeship as a photographer, Dünhöft set up his own photo studio with a shop in Cologne at Breite Str. 161–167. Comparable to other artistically active photographers like Hans Rama in Berlin, Dünhöft earned his living mainly from everyday photo assignments such as private portraits. At the same time, however, he was able to quickly make a name for himself with his ballet photos and in just a few years gained national recognition. He traveled to interesting premieres and dancers etc. a. to Berlin, Essen, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart, Brussels or Vienna. Many of the dancers also traveled to Cologne to see him. Among those portrayed by him are u. a. Paolo Bortoluzzi , Heinz Bosl , Richard Cragun , John Cranko , Eva Evdokimova , Margot Fonteyn , Marcia Haydée , Egon Madsen , Aurel von Milloss or Rudolf Nurejew . Dünhöft's photos from the world of ballet have been published in numerous books, newspapers and magazines.

The ballet calendars, which have been published annually by Dünhöft since 1965, are a specialty. While an editor such as Max Niehaus had previously compiled photos from various photographers of the most famous dancers for an annual ballet calendar and provided them with textual explanations, Dietmar Dünhöft created the type of photographer for the first time Ballet calendar exclusively designed with own photos (with textual support from Horst Koegler ).

Photo archive

The holdings of Dietmar Dünhöft's photo archive and a collection of his ballet calendars are in the German Dance Archive in Cologne .

Solo exhibitions

• 1967: Ballet impressions in the Cologne cabaret “Die Machtwächter” on the occasion of the 11th International Summer Academy of Dance.
• 1996: Dietmar Dünhöft: Ballet studies in "Room 2" of the SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne.
• 1997: Dietmar Dünhöft: Ballet studies as part of the international dance fair in Essen.
• 2000: Dietmar Dünhöft: A declaration of love to the ballet in the dance museum of the German Dance Archive in Cologne.

literature

• Otto J. Groeg (Ed.): Who's Who in the Arts. A biographical encyclopedia (...). Who's Who-Book & Publishing GmbH, Ottobrunn near Munich 1975, p. 126.

Web links

• Photos and text about Dietmar Dünhöft as well as an overview of his estate archive