Ulli Steltzer (2 October 1923 – 27 July 2018) was a German photographer best known for her works photographing First Nations people and art in B.C., Canada, including

Haida Haida may refer to: Places * Haida, an old name for Nový Bor * Haida Gwaii, meaning "Islands of the People", formerly called the Queen Charlotte Islands * Haida Islands, a different archipelago near Bella Bella, British Columbia Ships * , a 1 ...

artist

Bill Reid William Ronald Reid Jr. (12 January 1920 – 13 March 1998) ( Haida) was a Canadian artist whose works include jewelry, sculpture, screen-printing, and paintings. Producing over one thousand original works during his fifty-year career, Reid is ...

. Steltzer had numerous exhibits in and around

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, and both

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

and the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary instit ...

have collections of her works.

Biography

Ulli Steltzer was born in 1923 in

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 its na ...

, Germany. She immigrated to the United States in 1953, where she opened her first portrait studio on Tulane Street in

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

. Her photographs of Princeton's famous locals and visitors quickly gained her recognition across the country. In the late 1960s, her work evolved to reflect the social issues of the time. She photographed black people under

segregation Segregation may refer to: Separation of people * Geographical segregation, rates of two or more populations which are not homogenous throughout a defined space * School segregation * Housing segregation * Racial segregation, separation of humans ...

, standing out from the other documentary photographers with her focus on the people, rather than their environment. She later wrote that " hewas chilled by the discrimination hesaw practiced against black Americans... Since then hedevoted a good part of erlife to documenting the lives and works of men and women of different minorities, both here and abroad." Steltzer moved to Vancouver in 1972 and started photographing local

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

and their artwork. She is quoted saying that she stopped inside a store selling native goods, asked who had created a hand-woven basket and was appalled when the owner couldn't tell her. She credits this experience with her desire to create a book about indigenous artists at work. She used an unobtrusive hand-held Rollei camera to seek out "British Columbia's native artists in their own places, met them informally and recorded their rediscovery of their old skills". Steltzer was awarded an honorary doctorate by the

in 1997. Steltzer died July 27, 2018, at the age of 94.

Published works

She published numerous photographic collections, including: * * * * * * * * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steltzer, Ulli Photographers from Frankfurt 1923 births 2018 deaths West German emigrants Immigrants to the United States Immigrants to Canada German women photographers