Henning von Berg
Henning von Berg (born June 10, 1961 in Hanover ) is a German planning engineer and internationally active photographer . As a photographer, he specializes in character portraits and nudes .
biography
Henning von Berg grew up in Lower Saxony and initially worked for 13 years as an employed planning engineer. At 35 he moved to Cologne and began his second career as a freelance photographer in 1997.
In the summer of 1997, the autodidact organized his first large group shoot with 28 people in Cologne . A subsequent traveling exhibition “Factory Boyz” with still lifes in an inhospitable industrial landscape caused a national sensation. The idiosyncratic combination of "Body & Building" helped the civil engineer gain the title "Nude Architect". One of these first snapshots, the picture “Stairway” with thirteen models on an industrial staircase, was selected in 1998 for an international illustrated book.
In addition to Wilhelm von Gloeden , David Hockney , Horst P. Horst , Robert Mapplethorpe , Man Ray and Andy Warhol , Henning von Berg's name appears in the list of style-defining photo artists "Naked Men Exposed - A Celebration of the Male Nude from 90 of the World's Greatest Photographers" . The anthology was published in 2001 in German as "Naked Men - Ninety World-Famous Photographers".
As a co-initiator of the nude photo project “Naked Berlin” in the German Bundestag , he finally achieved his international breakthrough as a people photographer in 1999. As a team, he photographed six nude models on public streets in front of the sights of the capital, also in the Reichstag parliament . The pictures were published globally and called "Reichstag lout". To date, it is the world's first and only male nude shoot in a parliament building. The snapshots are intended to symbolize the liberal attitude of the reunified Federal Republic and, especially abroad, to make people think about the often outdated image of Germany. The exhibitions were later presented internationally, including a. from the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles.
In 2005 von Berg produced the matching counterpart on the other side of the globe: the art happening “Naked Sydney” with naked women in front of the sights of downtown Sydney. The following exhibitions were popular with the public, for example. B. also at the Canadian Summer Festival in Montreal. A total of around 200,000 people visited the exhibition.
The international art foundation Tom of Finland in Los Angeles appointed him in 2006 to the "Foundation Liaison" for Germany / Europe. In the same year he was also named “Benelux Correspondent” by the Australian specialist publisher Specialty Publications, responsible for the nude photo magazines “Blue” and “Black + White”.
Von Berg can now look back on around 460 publications and 44 exhibitions in galleries and museums on five continents.
Present work
Henning von Berg now lives alternately in Berlin , Amsterdam and Los Angeles .
His specialty are outdoor shots with natural light. He often integrates people into vast landscapes and monumental buildings. He prefers to work on art projects with amateurs (male / female), the oldest model being a 108-year-old lady. He currently focuses on illustrated books with seniors, the disabled, but also athletes and celebrities such as Julius Shulman .
Berg is increasingly being defined as a specialist in group photos. Some happenings serve socially critical aspects. However, his main focus is on nude photography and character portraits. The autodidact mainly uses natural light. As an engineer, what appeals to him is the juxtaposition of the delicacy of human curves and the strict lines of functional architecture.
For photo book projects he portrays a wide variety of people of all races and ages. He rarely works with professional models.
Von Berg has worked several times as a curator for exhibitions and as a juror at competitions. As an editor , he helps photographer icons to create their own illustrated books, e.g. B. Dianora Niccolini , Peter Berlin , Frank Diernhammer . Every year he gets involved in social projects and donates gallery prints for benefit auctions.
Exhibitions (excerpt)
- Goethe-Institut Los Angeles "Naked Berlin | The Liberal Capital"
- Art Forum Cologne "Colognia | California"
- Art Foundation ToF Foundation in Hollywood "Erotic Art Fair"
- Leather Archives & Museum in Chicago "Stairway"
- Festival Divers / City, Parc Emilie-Gamelin in Montreal "Naked Berlin | Naked Sydney"
Publications (excerpt)
- Henning von Berg, Men Pure - Retrospective 1997-2007 [The First 10 Years] , Lifetime Photographs Publishing, Seattle, 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-033248-7
- David Leddick, The Male Nude , Rizzoli / Universe, New York, 2008, ISBN 978-0789317568
- Kingdome 19 and Henning von Berg, Universal - Handcrafted Uniques , softcover, Bruno Gmünder Verlag , Berlin, 2008, ISBN 978-3-86187-911-4
- Henning von Berg, Alpha Males , Bruno Gmünder Verlag, Berlin, 2007, ISBN 3-86187-468-7
- Kingdome 19 and Henning von Berg, Universal - Handcrafted Uniques , hardcover, Bruno Gmünder Verlag , Berlin, 2004, ISBN 3-86187-655-8
- Phil Braham (Ed.), Reed Massengil, Exposed - A Celebration of the Male Nude from 90 of the World's Greatest Photographers , Thunder's Mouth Press, London, 2000, ISBN 1560253010
- David Leddick, Male Nude Now - Contemporary Photography Universe Publishing / Rizzoli, New York, 2001, ISBN 0789306352
- Reed Massengill, Self-Exposure - The Male Nude Selfportrait , Universe Publishing / Rizzoli, New York, 2006, ISBN 0-7893-1317-0
- Anthology, Naked - Female and Male Nudes , Feierabend Verlag, Cologne-Berlin, 2005, ISBN 3-89985-160-9
- Phil Braham, Naked Men: Ninety World Famous Photographers , Umschau / Braus, Frankfurt / M., 2000, ISBN 3-8295-6833-9
Web links
- Literature by and about Henning von Berg in the catalog of the German National Library
- official homepage
- Article Montreal Mirror ( Memento of July 26, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Biography on Mitra Images ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Berg, Henning von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German photographer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 10, 1961 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hanover |