Herlinde Koelbl

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Herlinde Koelbl (2015)

Herlinde Koelbl (born October 31, 1939 in Lindau, Lake Constance ) is a German photographer and documentary filmmaker . Among other things, she photographed and interviewed well-known German personalities from politics and business in a long-term study.

Life

In 1960, Herlinde Koelbl began studying fashion in Munich . She married in 1959 and had four children, including her daughter, who was born in 1965 and later became a journalist and author, Susanne Koelbl .

It wasn't until 1976 that the fashion designer came to photography as an autodidact and worked for renowned magazines and newspapers such as Stern , Die Zeit and New York Times , among others . In the professional world she has made a name for herself with various exhibitions at home and abroad.

The first great success with the general public was in 1980 the illustrated book Das Deutsche Wohnen ( The German Living Room) . Other illustrated books followed, such as 1984 Men and 1996 Strong Women , which contain courageous and honest nude portraits. Noteworthy is Koelbl's award-winning work Jewish portraits from 1989, which were exhibited in the Jewish Museum Frankfurt , the Spertus Museum in Chicago and many other museums. Her work hair was published in 2007 parallel to the exhibition of the pictures in Hamburg.

Photographer Herlinde Koelbl during a guest lecture at the University of Heidelberg (January 2020)

Her biggest project to date is a long-term study for which she photographed and interviewed 15 personalities from politics and business every year from 1991 to 1998. An illustrated book was published in 1999 under the title Traces of Power - The Transformation of Man through Office . a. the change of Joschka Fischer , Gerhard Schröder , Angela Merkel , Arnold Vaatz , Frank Schirrmacher , Renate Schmidt , Monika Hohlmeier and Irmgard Schwaetzer , as well as a documentary about it, which was also broadcast on television. In 1999 this television film was awarded the German Critics' Prize. The exhibition of the same name was shown in Berlin ( Deutsches Historisches Museum ), in Munich ( House of Art ), in Bonn ( House of History ) and at Art Frankfurt 2002.

In 2003 she shot the documentary Rausch und Ruhm about Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre , which shows his path through drug withdrawal.

In 2009, a retrospective of Koelbl's oeuvre was presented for the first time in its largest exhibition to date in Berlin's Martin-Gropius-Bau . From July 17 to November 1, under the title “Herlinde Koelbl Photographs 1976–2009”, 450 partially unpublished photographs from thirty years were exhibited.

She lives and works in Neuried near Munich .

Working method

Herlinde Koelbl answered the question in an interview whether the person photographed should bare himself for her portraits:

“That is the wrong approach. I want to tell a story about man. His story. This can only be achieved through dialogue. [...] People only open up when they believe that the other does not want to encroach on them. It is a togetherness. The sitter notices that I accept him, not judge him. I give him time not to have to function, but to be able to be. "

- Herlinde Koelbl

Awards and honors

Works

Television films

  • Intoxication and fame. (ARD, 2003) Documentation about Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre's drug withdrawal .
  • The pack - power and impotence of the media. (WDR, 2001)
  • Traces of power - the transformation of man through office. (ARD, 1999; 90 min)

Exhibitions (selection)

literature

  • Gero von Boehm : Herlinde Koelbl. June 8, 2009 . Interview in: Encounters. Images of man from three decades . Collection Rolf Heyne, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-89910-443-1 , pp. 671-677.
  • Rita Kohlmaier: Herlinde Koelbl . In: Women 70+ Cool. Rebellious. Wise. Elisabeth Sandmann Verlag, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-945543-76-4 , pp. 52-57.

Web links

Commons : Herlinde Koelbl  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herlinde Koelbl , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 11/2013 of March 12, 2013, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
  2. ↑ Herlinde Koelbl - the master of appearance and being , Welt.de, July 16, 2009
  3. ↑ Marc Felix Serrao: Herlinde Koelbl on faces. Interview. in: Süddeutsche Zeitung , No. 2, 3./4. January 2015, ISSN  0174-4917 , page 58.
  4. ↑ awarded on February 25, 2016 in the Old Town Hall in Munich
  5. ↑ Review at 3sat online: A documentary about journalists on the hunt
personal data
SURNAME Koelbl, Herlinde
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photographer and photo journalist
DATE OF BIRTH October 31, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Lindau (Lake Constance)