| | | Fritz Henle
The Spirit of Beauty
Biography of Fritz Henle
This exhibition and catalogue marks the centennial of Henle’s birth in 1909. Born into a family of medical doctors and scientists in Dortmund, Germany, Henle first became fascinated with photography, his father’s favorite hobby, during his early teenage years. With his family’s move to Heidelberg and his graduation from the Gymnasia, Henle enrolled in the Bavarian Institute of Photography in Munich, graduating with honors in only one year’s time. The next year, spent participating in a Guggenheim program in Italy under the tutelage of noted American photographer, Clarence Kennedy, completed his technical and artistic education and led him to embrace the profession full-time.
Fleeing Germany in 1936, Henle emigrated to New York City and quickly established himself as an energetic and accomplished artist and photojournalist. He became one of the earliest contributing photographers to the newly established LIFE magazine, from which he quickly branched out into many major American periodicals, including Fortune, Mademoiselle and Town & Country. In an era in which most photographers were categorized into specific subject fields – portraiture, advertising, travel, industrial, nude studies and/or fashions – Henle rapidly became know in the profession as a photographer who could do it all. He remained an in-demand freelance photographer until, with the outbreak of World War II and the granting of his American citizenship in 1942, he went to work for the U.S. Office of War Information (OWI, formerly the Farm Security Administration), documenting American life during the war years.
Following his OWI years Henle cemented his reputation as a major freelancer, contributing his work not only to national and international periodicals and books. Eventually this led to his becoming a chief photographer for Harper’s Bazaar during its influential years under the editorship of Carmel Snow and, most especially, its innovative new art director, Alexey Brodovitch. Simultaneously he also became a writer and columnist for the most increasingly influential American photographic journals of the day such as Popular Photography, Modern Photography and U.S. Camera. His assignments and personal travels would take him to more than 30 countries in the course of his life.
His individualism, adaptability and enthusiasm underscored his career and Henle eventually became – as the photohistorian Helmut Gernsheim called him – "the last of the classical freelance photographers." Rather than be tied to any one publisher or magazine, Henle established his permanent home on St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, in 1958, married twice and eventually raised four children, and continued to conduct his independent career from the island for the remainder of his life.
While never a self-promoter, Henle could always be counted upon for completing his assignments on deadline and always with his customary style and artistry. Indeed, it was through his art that he first became well known and, as the New York Times noted, it was by "his classically composed black-and-white images" that he first established his flourishing career. While still in his twenties he had published his first book, had achieved five front cover stories in LIFE magazine, and had had numerous one-man shows in Europe, the United States and Japan. From the late 1930s through the 1960s Fritz Henle emerged as one of the major photographers of this era.
Henle’s art was unrestricted by convention or by popular trends. First recognized for the clean and sharp elegance of his black-and-white photographs, Henle remained the champion of what he defined as "beauty" in photography and, regardless of the type of subject matter he encountered, always strove to find an aesthetically pleasing approach to what came before his camera. While his subjects and assignments remained diverse and complex, he always managed to capture the elegance, meaning and passion that an image’s true forms could convey or reveal. In the process he brought to all manner of photographic applications – from fashion to documentary, from industrial design to studies of the nude form – a distinctive sense of style which combined the realistic and the romantic in a positive and unique vision. Such was the grace of his fidelity and the quality of his technique that by the early 1950s Henle effortlessly made the frequent transition to color photography and back again.
Henle would also achieve a form of technical immortality as well with his championing of the square-format image. He discovered the multiple, positive benefits of the twin-lens Rolleiflex camera during his student days in Munich and hardly ever forsook this workhorse throughout his 60+ years in the business. With its superb optics and its large 2 ¼-inch roll film size, the Rolleiflex became his favorite camera, around which he designed not only his practice but, indeed, an entire discipline and philosophy of artistic design and practice. Authoring numerous books and articles about this camera and the square format artistry which it could achieve, Henle began to be know by the 1940s as "Mr. Rollei" – a name in which he and the camera’s manufacturers took great pride. In the process of working with this design component, Henle emerged ahead of his time and became a significant influence upon later generations of square-format artists.
Fritz Henle also contributed significantly to the literature of photography, writing and editing over 30 books and catalogues. At first he edited major monographs of his own work, chiefly on various lands and peoples around the world. (Two of these volumes – Mexico and Paris – were designed by Brodovitch himself.) Later on he branched out into several popular genres, such as travel and figural volumes, while simultaneously writing books on technical instruction and aesthetic design for the general public as well. In the end, his published oeuvre became as vast and elegant as the range of his vision itself. It would also reflect the broad scope of his exhibition record, for he would also hold more than 100 one-man shows throughout his lifetime on an equally wide variety of themes and subject matter.
As his age increased Henle began to concentrate more of his art upon subjects closer to his home. He continued to document, through publication and exhibition, his home island of St. Croix as well as other places through the Caribbean. In his seventies he established a close friendship with the cellist, Pablo Casals, and subsequently produced a book (which went through seven language editions) and traveling exhibition. In his final years he worked extensively on his archive and master print collection here at the HRC as well on his final retrospective exhibition which was held throughout his German homeland in the year following his death in 1993.
Beyond the biographical, artistic and subjectival issues concerning Fritz Henle’s art and career, larger issues emerged which are addressed in the catalogue and which also merit presentation in the exhibition. Chief among these is the emergence of photography as an art form during the post-World War II era. While most photographers worked within the confined of one or two particular genres of photography at this time, there were a rare few like Henle who embraced the medium as an art form in and of itself and strove to provide a resonance to this movement throughout the many disciplines in which they worked at this time. At the same time new voices were appearing in the photographic media, again including Henle, or were starting to emerge within select art museum and teaching institutions as well.
The nature of the exhibition of photography as a fine art was also championed early on by Henle. In 1936 he had his first one-man shows at Mitsubishi in Tokyo, the Cleveland Art Museum, and at Rockfeller Center in New York City. For nearly every year until his death Henle continued to design, print, mount, circulate and promote major exhibitions of his work throughout the world, becoming one of the most recognized photographers of the mid-twentieth century. Equal in importance to his books and countless periodical articles and reproductions, the exhibitions of Fritz Henle continued to provide him with a critical medium of expression for his art and his vision. This exhibition will continue on in this critical tradition.
Roy Flukinger
Senior Research Curator, Harry Ransom Center
[Text used with permission]
Press release for the "Fritz Henle: In Search of Beauty" exhibition at the Harry Ransom Center (February 3, 2009 - August 2, 2009)
The Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, presents the retrospective exhibition "Fritz Henle: In Search of Beauty." (February 3, 2009 - August 2, 2009)
The exhibition celebrates the art of photographer Fritz Henle (1909-1993) and coincides with the centenary of his birth in Germany. Featuring more than 125 seminal works that span the six decades of Henle‘s career, the exhibition documents his enduring quest to find beauty in all forms of artistic genres and throughout the world.
"One thing an artist can do in this world is to remind people that there is so much beauty that you only have to see it," said Henle. Running from Feb. 3 to Aug. 2, 2009, the exhibition includes vintage and modern prints and features a broad range of Henle‘s subjects, including images of New York City, Mexico, China and Paris; fashion; nudes; industry; and portraits of famous personalities.
Versatility marked Henle‘s work from the beginning, with his talents extending across genres of photography, including travel, fashion, commercial, portrait, journalistic, documentary, celebrity, industry, landscape and culture.
Not long after he settled in the United States in 1936, Henle became one of the earliest contributors to Life Magazine, which featured more than 50 picture stories and five front covers by the photographer.
Dubbed "the last classic freelance photographer" by photohistorian Helmut Gernsheim, Henle produced work for a range of clients, including Harper‘s Bazaar, Glamour, Mademoiselle, Town and Country, and Holiday and published more than 20 major books of his works.
A champion of the large square-format image, Henle relied on the twin-lens Rolleiflex camera for most of his work. Nicknamed "Mr. Rollei," Henle found the square format provided one of the brightest and clearest screens for composition, detail, flexibility and creative expression.
While Henle‘s subjects and assignments remained diverse and complex, he always managed to capture the meaning and passion an image‘s true forms could reveal and convey.
Roy Flukinger, curator of the exhibition and senior research curator of photography at the Ransom Center, said, "Henle remained the champion of what he defined as ‘beauty‘ in photography and, regardless of the subject matter he encountered, always strove to find an aesthetically pleasing approach to what came before his camera."
Recognized for the clean and sharp elegance of the photographs, Henle‘s art was unrestricted by convention or popular trends. "Fritz Henle: In Search of Beauty" illustrates why Henle‘s photography continues to be recognized for its artistry, eloquence and insightfulness.
The exhibition is presented by the Judy and Steven Gluckstern family through their Lucky Star Foundation and by the Robin and Danny Greenspun family through their Culture Dog Foundation.
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