great black and white photographers part 2

     Lothar Wolleh was born in Berlin, Germany on January 20, 1930. From 1946 to 1948 he studied at the Hochschule für angewandte Kunst in Berlin-Weissense, where he studied "concrete painting" in an elementary class. In 1950, as a young man he was arrested by the Russian occupying forces on suspicion of spying, and was condemned to 15 years forced labour and underground mining in Siberia at the Soviet camp Vorkuta. He was released after Chancellor Adenauer went to Moscow in 1956 to return the remaining German prisoners of war.

     

     After his return, he went to obtain an education from the continuation school for photography and design, Lette-Verein, in Berlin. In 1958, he journeyed to Gotland, Sweden, as part of the trip of the World Council of Churches. For Wolleh, this journey turned out to be a major turning point in his life resulting into a life-long devotion to the people and landscape of Sweden.

     In 1964, he married his wife Karin Wolleh. During the next year he made the publication of his first photo-volume, Das Konzil. After the next two years, his wife had a son and a daughter, Oliver and Anouchka Wolleh. Then in 1970, he published two new photo-volumes, UdSSR and  Uecker Monografie. 

     

     Later in 1972, he published Art Scene Dusseldorf and made a film about his friend, Gunther Uecker's 'White-Black Room'. Until his sudden death in 1979, Lothar Wolleh worked on his series of portraits of celebrated artists. It is these works that undoubtedly form the core of Wolleh's photographic and creative achievements. In all, Wolleh photographed 109 artists in this cycle. With his unique flair and highly developed sense of the artist's individuality, Wolleh produced a series of personalised portraits which reveal the inner essence of the artist and their work. The rigorously symmetrical structure places the artist at the very centre of the portrait and removes the stylised atmosphere of the studio. In this way, Wolleh offers insights into the artist's creativity without resorting to the conventional "artist-image" perspective.