Barbara Klemm (born 27 December 1939 in

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

) is a German press photographer. She worked for ''

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

'' for 45 years. She photographed many of the most important events in recent German history and has received honors, including Fellowship of the

Academy of Arts, Berlin The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The Academy's predecessor organization was fo ...

and the

Pour le Mérite The ' (; , ) is an order of merit (german: Verdienstorden) established in 1740 by King Frederick II of Prussia. The was awarded as both a military and civil honour and ranked, along with the Order of the Black Eagle, the Order of the Red Eag ...

. She was inducted into the Leica Hall of Fame in recognition of her status as "a driving force in reportage photography" and as "an exemplary photographer".

Early life

She was born in

and grew up in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

. Her father Fritz Klemm was a painter and a professor at the

Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe The State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe () is an art school located in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. History The Academy was founded in 1854 by Frederick I, Grand Duke of Baden, with the landscape painter Johann Wilhelm Schirmer as ...

Career

In 1959 she moved to

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

to work for the ''

'' (FAZ), for which she worked until 2004. As a press photographer she photographed events including the 1969 student riots in Frankfurt,

Heinrich Böll Heinrich Theodor Böll (; 21 December 1917 – 16 July 1985) was a German writer. Considered one of Germany's foremost post-World War II writers, Böll is a recipient of the Georg Büchner Prize (1967) and the Nobel Prize for Literature (1972). ...

protesting against nuclear weapons in 1983, the 1969 celebrations in

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

for the tenth anniversary of the revolution, the first democratic elections held in Portugal in 25 April 1975, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. She has photographed many celebrities, including

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

Tom Waits Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He worked primarily in jazz during ...

Claudio Abbado Claudio Abbado (; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony ...

, Simon Rattle,

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century ...

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

, and

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Rainer Werner Fassbinder (; 31 May 1945 – 10 June 1982), sometimes credited as R. W. Fassbinder, was a German filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the major figures and catalysts of the New German Cinema movement. Fassbinder's main ...

. Her famous photographs include Soviet general secretary

Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and ...

kissing East German leader

Erich Honecker Erich Ernst Paul Honecker (; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. He held the posts ...

in 1979. Throughout her life she has consistently used black-and-white analog (film) photography, typically single photographs rather than series.

Exhibitions

* ''Barbara Klemm. Photographs 1968 – 2013'', Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, 2013–2014

Awards

She is a Fellow of the Academy of Arts, Berlin and an honorary professor at

Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences The Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences (german: Hochschule Darmstadt), also known as h_da, is a University of Applied Sciences located in Darmstadt, Germany. h_da is part of the IT cluster Rhine-Main-Neckar, the "Silicon Valley of Germany ...

. She received the Dr. Erich Salomon Prize in 1989, the Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts in 2010 and the Leica Hall of Fame award in 2012.

References

External links

The main works of Barbara Klemm
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klemm, Barbara 1939 births Living people Photographers from North Rhine-Westphalia German women photographers Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung people People from Münster