From the collections: Photographers Fritz Zapp and Peter H. Fürst in the Rheinisches Bildarchiv of Cologne

Whether or not the autodidact and photographer Fritz Zapp was aware of this sentence by Sinclair Lewis, his images of the city of Cologne and its landmark, Cologne Cathedral, depict the vision described by Lewis. Zapp (1892 – 1960) didn’t photograph Cologne Cathedral from the otherwise conventional southern perspective, but from the northern viewpoint instead, thereby having both of the Cathedral’s characteristic towers merge into one – a “new, unconventional image concept”. (Evelyn Bertram-Neunzig)

Zapp’s photographs emerged between 1910 and 1915 and document Cologne’s architecture during the Gründerzeit (a period of rapid industrial expansion at the end of the 19th century), which was destroyed by bombings during the Second World War. When he died in 1960, Fritz Zapp left behind around 8,000 glass panes, single images and sheet films. In 2007, the Rheinisches Bildarchiv (the Rheinland’s image archive) acquired 164 glass negatives, which are now on display in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek. The historical images reveal streetscapes and residential and office buildings along the Cologne Ring and formerly newly constructed suburbs like Neuehrenfeld.

Fritz Zapp taught himself photography – as a skilled house painter, it was only after he relocated from his birthplace of Kleinbliersbach in the Bergisches Land to Hoffnungsthal in 1910 that he devoted himself to photography. Unlike Peter H. Fürst: born in Austria in 1939, the photographer completed an apprenticeship in photography at his parents’ firm so that he could then study at the Höhere graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna. Following his master craftsman examination, Fürst worked for architects and industrial and advertising agencies, taking images within the field of fur and fashion photography.

In 2002, Peter H. Fürst donated 126 large-size prints from various photo series to the Rheinisches Bildarchiv, in which he had photographed “Cologne’s Personalities” between 1987 and 1995.

In order to characterise the project as a concept and series, most of the images took place in a studio. Together with his colleague, psychologist Ralf Baumgarten, Fürst created a dialogue with his protagonists for the shoots to enable him to capture the individuality of the characters beyond the pose.

Another photo series depicts association boards. This time, the photographs weren’t taken in a studio, but in the respective rooms or venues of the associations, in order to visualise the self-images held by each of the groups: “The room puts a respectful, almost ceremonial distance between photographer and “board”, which is highlighted still by the almost unnatural severity of expression. Via creative means, the photographer, where possible, manifests something that lies behind the associations’ work: consistencies, creating, promoting and maintaining traditions.” (Roswitha Neu-Kock)

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Links:

Fritz Zapp in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek

Peter H. Fürst in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek

Wir sind die DDB: Das Rheinische Bildarchiv

Das Rheinische Bildarchiv der Stadt Köln