Fred Herzog's Urban Poetics

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Fred Herzog, "Two Men in Fog," 1958

archival pigment print, Courtesy of the artist and Equinox Gallery, Vancouver

Fred Herzog’s Two Men in Fog (1958) and Granville Street at Night (1959) are among 18 striking photographs of Vancouver and other localities featured in the exhibition Fred Herzog: Shadowlands, on view at the Audain Art Museum in Whistler, B.C., through May 22. Audain curator Darrin Martens wanted to examine how the use of shadow, the tension between light and dark, and the relationship of presence and absence all contribute to Herzog’s urban social narrative.

The men in Two Men in Fog pass each other on an otherwise empty sidewalk, a few cars visible on the foggy street. The figures read as silhouettes, their shadows and those of telephone poles cast across the pavement. Despite their similar attire in overcoats and hats, and their proximity to each other, they exist in separate worlds, anonymous and unknown.

Conversely, the Granville Street photograph is crowded with pedestrians, cars, buses, and bright neon signs that provide light, reflections and colour. Yet even in all its bustling vibrancy, the dark shadows of people seen from behind suggest that life in the city can be isolating.

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Fred Herzog, “Black Man Pender,” 1958

archival pigment print, Courtesy of the artist and Equinox Gallery, Vancouver

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Fred Herzog, “Crossing Powell 2,” 1984

archival pigment print, Courtesy of the artist and Equinox Gallery, Vancouver

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Fred Herzog, “Martin Luther King,” 1970

archival pigment print, Courtesy of the artist and Equinox Gallery, Vancouver

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Fred Herzog, “Self-Portrait,” 1959

archival pigment print, Courtesy of the artist and Equinox Gallery, Vancouver

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In addition to several self-portraits and photographs of window reflections, the exhibition includes the quintessential Herzog images of people on the street, going about their daily lives, like the smartly dressed father and daughter walking their dog on Pender Street (Black Man Pender, 1958).

Herzog’s work spans more than six decades. A pioneer in photographing with colour film, he produced an enduring and nuanced record of cities and the people who inhabit them, also documenting buildings, industrial sites, window displays, signs, advertisements and automobiles. Explaining his attraction to the seamier side of urban life, he once said: “The use of neon signs, billboards and advertising in the ’50s and ’60s made Vancouver truly exotic, potent and exciting.”

Like the street photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Harry Callahan and Helen Levitt, among others, Herzog hoped to discover “the disorderly vitality of the street; the street people on the corners and plazas, in billiard parlors, pubs and stores where shoppers, voyeurs and loiterers feel at home.” This quote appears in the essay, “Time and Place,” by British writer David Campany in a newly published book, Fred Herzog: Modern Color, a comprehensive tome that includes the most reproductions of Herzog’s photographs to date – over 220 of them, many never-before reproduced, as well as a second essay by Munich-based photo historian Hans-Michael Koetzle that traces the development of colour photography and Herzog’s place within it, and an article by Vancouver artist Jeff Wall reprinted from an earlier book.

Taken together, the Audain exhibition and new book offer an excellent overview of Herzog’s visual poetry to the city of Vancouver, and his enormous contribution to the history of photography.