Pan Walther

Pan Walther 1986

Pan Walther (born November 10, 1921 in Dresden , † November 14, 1987 in Bangkok ) was a German portrait and landscape photographer who described himself as a photographer . The focus of his professional activity was on training and teaching photography. As a university teacher, he developed the photography course at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences .

Career

Pan Walther was born in Dresden in 1921 as the biological son of Siegfried Grünberg. He was raised by Fritz Walther, who also acted as the documented father. In 1936 he went to his birth father in The Hague , where he began his photography apprenticeship. His artistic development was accompanied by the photographers Henri Berssenbrugge , Willy Schürmann and Jan Broocks. From 1939 to 1941 Pan Walther worked as a freelance photographer and filmmaker in Holland. His friendship with the Dutch photographer and graphic artist Wim Noordhoek also stems from these years.

In 1941 he returned to Dresden, completed his training at the Technical School for Photography in Dresden with Franz Fiedler . From 1943 to 1945 he was a soldier and on his return married the photographer Christine Bellmann, who was trained by Grete Back. Together they set up a studio in the Dresden district of Loschwitz in Calberlastrasse 1f in Dresden as "artistically freelance (.) Photographers". In 1946 Walther passed his master craftsman examination as a photographer. In the same year his daughter Franzis was born. A year later he and his wife Christine opened a new studio in Georg Curt Bauch's former artist house at Pillnitzer Landstrasse 29 and set up a photography school with Franz Fiedler. This studio was continued by his student Evelyn Richter after the Walthers' departure . During his time in Dresden, Pan Walther developed the peculiarity of his photography. He captured his models with twenty to thirty photos from different angles, which were also illuminated differently, in order to then select the most appropriate and enlarge it. He also portrayed well-known personalities such as Otto Dix , Willy Brandt and Woldemar Winkler . The photographer Pan Walther had a close friendship with the Dresden artists Josef Hegenbarth and Hermann Glöckner . Artist friendships that continued even after Pan Walther moved to Münster in 1950 and that were cultivated on regular trips to Dresden. In this artistic environment, the portrait emerged as Walther's "real artistic domain". In 1949 he was appointed to the Society of German Photographers , of which he was made an honorary member in 1985. In 1949 his daughter Elin was born.

Between 1938 and 1945 Walther stayed regularly at Wim Noordhoek's house in the village of Plasmolen in the Netherlands, where he got to know anthroposophical and humanistic theories. He came into contact with Enno Brokke , Jan Gregoor and Ap Sok , who later became known as the artist group De Cuykse Groep . Influenced by Pan Walther, Noordhoek, who was originally a draftsman, concentrated more and more on photography. Walther and Noordhoek went on a trip to Italy from 1948 to 1949.

In 1950 Christine and Pan Walther left the GDR for political reasons . Walther set up a photo studio with his wife in Münster and taught at the Werkkunstschule Münster from 1951 . In 1954 he went to Cologne for a year to teach at the State Higher Technical School for Photography as an artistic lecturer. In 1955 his wife Christine died. In 1956 he took photo trips to Les-Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer as well as to Greece and Yugoslavia. In 1960 and 65 he traveled to Spain. In 1963 he switched to teaching at the Werkkunstschule Dortmund "with its own group of works for photography, photography and film". For this group "he opened up a dead colliery site in Dorstfeld on his own," where he developed his own design theory, elementary photography . In 1966 his son Fridtjof was born. In 1969 he was appointed to the German Society for Photography and the Association of Freelance Photo Designers , of which he became chairman a year later. In 1970 his daughter Eloa was born. In 1971 he set up the photo and film design course at the Werkkunstschule in Dortmund and traveled to Iceland . Two years later he received the state award of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and was appointed professor at the Werkkunstschule Dortmund, which was converted into a technical college . This is followed by trips to Rome (1975), Greece (1979) and the USA (1984).

During the 1970s, photography gained particular importance for Walther's work. He saw it as an opportunity to elevate photographic motifs creatively. During the 1980s, Walther worked heavily with staged self-portrayals. "The whole thing is a bit of satire, maybe even a bit of satire. I show my aversion to standing at attention, heroism, being shot dead and a false sense of honor in a lovable way."

Pan Walther was a member of the Society of German Photographers and the German Society for Photography . Walther was honored with numerous recognitions and awards for his life's work, including the 1973 State Prize of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia . His works are represented in well-known museums such as the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

student

Pan Walter's students included Michael Kapsalos, Josef H. Neumann , Evelyn Richter , Axel M.Mosler , Franzis von Stechow .

Publications

• Creative photography. Part 2. Design with light, shape and color. Laterna magica publishing house, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-87467-208-5 .
• Artistic portrait photography. Laterna magica publishing house, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-87467-306-5
• See, feel, create. Augustus-Verlag, Augsburg 1993, ISBN 3-8043-5033-X

Web links

• Literature by and about Pan Walther in the catalog of the German National Library

literature

• Pan Walther - the photographer. Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund 1986, ISBN 3-925998-02-0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pan Walther on artnet.com, accessed on August 3, 2014
2. ↑ The source for the biographical data is the catalog published in 1997 on the occasion of an exhibition of Pan Walther's works: Gottfried Jäger, Wolfgang Holler, Hans-Ulrich Lehmann (eds.): Pan Walther , Dresden 1997, ISBN 3-932264-03-7 , p 71–73
   Pan Walther died , in: Photo. Design + Technik , 1/88, p. 12
   Gottfried Jäger: Professor Pan Walther is dead , in: BFF-Kurznotizen No. 94, November 15, 87, pp. 25-27.
3. ↑ Wim Noordhoek , at collectie.nederlandsfotomuseum.nl, accessed on October 15, 2018
4. ↑ Biographical information on Franzis von Stechow , on www.franzisvonstechow.de, accessed on October 15, 2018
5. ↑ Seeing, feeling, creating. Josef Hegenbarth and Pan Walther at josef-hegenbarth.de, accessed on August 3, 2014
6. ↑ Friendship across borders at ammannphoto.de, accessed on February 8, 2017.
7. ↑ Gottfried Jäger: Pan Walther died . In: Photo. Design + technology . No. 1/1988 , p. 12 .
8. ↑ Dutch Photo Museum: Biography of Wim Noordhoek on nederlandsfotomuseum.nl, accessed on August 3, 2014 (English)
9. ↑ ^{a b} life data . In: Gottfried Jäger, Wolfgang Holler, Hans-Ulrich Lehmann (Eds.): Pan Walther . Dresden 1997, ISBN 3-932264-03-7 , pp. 71-73 .
10. ^ Pan Walther: Artistic portrait photography . Laterna Magica, Munich 1986, p. 155 .
11. ↑ Pan Walther on rigabuch.de ( Memento from January 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved on February 7, 2017
12. ↑ Michael Kapsalos website , accessed on May 8, 2015
13. ↑ Hannes Schmidt: Comments on the chemograms by Josef Neumann. Exhibition in the photography studio gallery of Prof. Pan Walther , in: Photo-Presse . Issue 22, 1976, p. 6