Fritz Henle (June 9, 1909 – January 31, 1993) was a German-born photographer, known as "Mr. Rollei" for his use of the 2.25" square format film used in the

Rolleiflex Rolleiflex is the name of a long-running and diverse line of high-end cameras originally made by the German company Franke & Heidecke, and later Rollei-Werke. History The "Rolleiflex" name is most commonly used to refer to Rollei's premier ...

camera. Called, "the last classic freelance photographer" by photohistorian,

Helmut Gernsheim Helmut Erich Robert Kuno Gernsheim (1 March 1913 – 20 July 1995) was a historian of photography, a collector and a photographer. Early life and education Born in Munich, Germany, he was the third son of the academic librarian Karl Gernsheim an ...

, he had a career spanning more than 60 years, during which he amassed an archive of more than 110,000 negatives, representing images of Europe, India, Japan, Hawai, the United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

Life

Henle was born in Dortmund,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in 1909. He initially studied physics, before entering the ''Bayerische Staatslehranstalt fϋr Lichtbildwesen'' de (Bavarian State College for Photography) in Munich. Having completed his studies he spent a year photographing works of art in Florence. During 1934 he travelled all over Italy, taking pictures for the Lloyd steamship line, and in 1935–6 he visited China and Japan. In 1936 he carried out an assignment for Time-Life, and his pictures were published in ''Fortune '' magazine. He later visited the United States, his connections to ''Life'' magazine eventually facilitating his emigration to the country. He became a US citizen in 1942, and moved to Saint Croix in the Virgin Islands in 1958. Henle photographed fashion, portrait, travel and industrial subjects and his work was published by ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

'', '' Mademoiselle'', and '' Harper's Bazaar'' magazines.''Fritz Henle, 83, Dies; Travel Photographer'',

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, February 5, 1993 He died in

Saint Croix Saint Croix; nl, Sint-Kruis; french: link=no, Sainte-Croix; Danish and no, Sankt Croix, Taino: ''Ay Ay'' ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincor ...

, U.S. Virgin Islands in 1993 An exhibition called "Fritz Henle: In Search of Beauty", marking the centenary of his birth, was held at the

Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

The University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in 2009.

Books

* ''Fritz Henle's Guide to Rollei Photography'' (1956) * ''The Caribbean; a Journey With Pictures'', Fritz Henle and P. E. Knapp (1957) * ''Fritz Henle: In Search of Beauty'', Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, Roy Flukinger and Fritz Henle (2009)

References

External links

Official website

Major books and catalogs published by Fritz Henle
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henle, Fritz 1909 births 1993 deaths Artists from Dortmund Photographers from North Rhine-Westphalia 20th-century American photographers American portrait photographers German emigrants to the United States