The Photographer Andreas Herzau
As a photojournalist, Andreas Herzau felt a responsibility to make what he saw visible to the world in a new way. In doing so, he championed free, objective reporting. From 1990 to 2023, he photographically examined the world as a keen observer and, as an interpreter of contemporary phenomena, addressed it in his own aesthetically designed photographs.
Andreas Herzau began his professional career with an apprenticeship as a typesetter, then worked as a trainee at Konkret and as an editor at the Hamburger Rundschau before successfully transitioning to photography in the early 1990s. As a politically minded person, he wasn't content with commissions for newspapers and magazines. Together with like-minded people, he founded the photo agency SIGNUM FOTOGRAFIE in Hamburg in 1991. As part of this collaboration, he traveled to Africa, among other places, to report on the crises and wars there, which continue to be the causes of flight and displacement to this day.
From then on, he maintained his focus on sociopolitical grievances as a freelance photographer, also uncovering injustices in his immediate surroundings. With his photographs, he always remained close to people, often dynamically cropping the subject into the frame. For example, he photographed the Love Parade in Berlin (1999), New York before and after 9/11 (2000-2002), created a subjective inventory of life in Germany 15 years after reunification (2006), and accompanied the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra on their concert tours for several years (2016-2023).
The quality of his photographic work is evident in the subjective yet authentic portrayal of the character of entire cities and countries. Andreas Herzau was able to reflect the mood of a society. For him, photography was a form of research and empathy. "I am forced to pay attention, ... to open myself ... and to realize that there is nothing more beautiful than taking photographs – in order to understand," writes Andreas Herzau in the foreword to one of his photo books. With the help of his photographs, he traced underlying conflicts and simultaneously pointed out their potential consequences. This commitment has been honored with numerous awards, most recently with the prize for the best political photograph of 2017.
Herzau is one of those dedicated photographers who have expanded the boundaries of classic photojournalism in his own unique and often astonishing ways. He is concerned with challenging familiar visual stereotypes, which he attempts to question through his own intense images. He uses his visual language to combine essayistic-narrative and analytical-abstract elements, thus creating intense visual stories, which he preferably publishes as book projects.
"If that were all there was to it, it would be a lot," says Peter Bialobrzeski. "In addition to his photographic work, Andreas Herzau has also engaged in discourse. He has written texts, given lectures, and exhibited internationally. His great passion beyond photography was communication. He has taught at the journalism center Haus Busch in Hagen, at the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciencesand Arts, at the Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie, was a visiting professor in Karlsruhe, a lecturer at the Burg in Halle, and for many semesters as a lecturer in Bremen."
Andreas Herzau was a co-founder and board member of the laif Genossenschaft der Fotograf:innen, where he played a key role in its focus on "preserving and promoting independent photojournalism, high-quality photography, and press diversity – a cornerstone of democracy." He was a driving force behind the establishment of the laif Foundation, also with the goal of strengthening independent photojournalism.
