Hildegard Ochse

Hildegard Ochse (December 7, 1935 – June 28, 1997) was a German photographer.

Hildegard Ochse
Born(1935-12-07)December 7, 1935
Bad Salzuflen, Lippe, Germany
Died(1997-06-28)June 28, 1997
Berlin, Germany
NationalityGerman
OccupationPhotographer
StyleDocumentary
Websitehildegard-ochse.de, autorenfotografin.de

Life and work

Hildegard Maria Helene Ochse (maiden name Roemer) was born at home in Bad Salzuflen, Westphalia on December 7, 1935, the daughter of Dr. phil. Emma Maria Römer-Krusemeyer[1] (1894–1964) and Arthur Peter Maria Römer (1893–1957). At age sixteen in the summer of 1952, Hildegard left in the summer the provincial Bad Salzuflen. She traveled as an exchange student on scholarship to Rochester. Once in Rochester, she lived with a host family and attended the Catholic Nazareth Academy. Her host father was employed by Eastman Kodak as a senior chemist in the development department and his knowledge of photography became an important influence for Hildegard. In the US, she produced her first portraits as well as remarkable street and architectural photographs. After a year in 1953, Hildegard returned to Bad Salzuflen with her high school diploma. In 1955 she passed her German high exams with honors and began studying romance languages and art history at the University of Freiburg in Breisgau with Dr. Hugo Friedrich (1904–1978) and Dr. Kurt Bauch (1897–1975), whose areas of research were among others Dutch painting and Rembrandt. During her studies, she met her future husband Horst Ochse (1927–2014)[2] at the university in Freiburg. In 1957 she received a scholarship to Aix-en-Provence in southern France and lived with a photographer in modest conditions. She was impressed by the landscape and the colors in Provence and wrote »... if I were a painter, I think I could not paint this country because it is too BEAUTIFUL. And the eye cannot take in these colors and these forms at once. If painting a landscape, then northern Germany, the marshes, the fields...«. In the same year, she became pregnant in the fall, and her father unexpectedly died on her birthday. In March her marriage to the later Dr. phil. Horst Ochse followed. In summer, she gave birth to her first child and had to quit studying. In the following seven years, Hildegard had three other children who required her full attention. In the spring of 1973, the family moved to West Berlin for professional reasons. After an extended stay in France with the family in 1975, their marriage began to fail later leading to a final separation. Almost simultaneously in early 1975, Hildegard again discovered her passion for photography. At first she taught herself. Subsequently, she learned through the Werkstatt für Photographie (Workshop for Photography), in photography courses of the continuing education center in Zehlendorf in 1976, and later in the legendary photography workshop of Michael Schmidt (1945–2014) in Berlin-Kreuzberg.

At the beginning of the workshop, a somewhat orthodox documentary way of seeing dominated, which organized itself around the aesthetics of Michael Schmidt and focused on a presentation of everyday life. Later, the photography scene experimented with new forms of documentation which emphasized a subjective view of the author. Hildegard Ochse quickly developed an independent, artistic authorship with a personal viewpoint. Most students and attendees were self-taught and therefore had a more liberal understanding of the medium compared to professional photographers. The imagery and the content were initially more important than technical quality. She participated in courses under the direction of Ulrich Goerlich (1952–), Wilmar Koenig (1952–2018), as well as workshops by American photographers such as Lewis Baltz (1945–), John Gossage (1946–), Ralph Gibson (1939–) and Larry Fink (1952–) and the German photographer André Gelpke (1947–). Her imagery developed soon after initial attempts—profound, multi-layered and philosophical, dense, highly concentrated, conceptual and documentary. She created images primarily for herself and per her own wishes.

From 1978 Hildegard taught photography at the state media center,[3] as well as at the Pedagogical University Berlin and could present her images in galleries for the first time. Shortly after her new beginning, the first photo series were purchased by the Berlin Gallery. After the final separation from her husband and a private fresh start, she established herself as an independent author photographer as of 1981. She received extensive commissions, grants and exhibitions at home and abroad. A portion of the body of work she produced is housed in the collections of the Berlinische Galerie [4] in Berlin, Art Collection of the German Bundestag,[5] and at the Universitá di Parma, Centro studi, dip. Fotografia and private collections. She traveled extensively with her camera and thus unintentionally documented her own life. Italy became her preferred destination. In 1995 she was diagnosed with leukemia, she died in the summer of 1997 at the age of 61 in Berlin. She and her husband had four children: Adrian, Katharina, Caroline, Benjamin.[6]

Publishing rights for most of Hildegard Ochse's photographs are now handled by her son Benjamin Ochse and the Prussian Heritage Image Archive.

Notable works
  • 1979: Natur in der Stadt, Großstadtvegetation
  • 1980: No Future – Café Mitropa
  • 1980: Landscapes – Denmark at the beach
  • 1981: Municipal church
  • 1980–83: Street photography, Winter in Berlin
  • 1982: Bosa
  • 1983: Topographic Sequenzen of a city and changing landscapes
  • 1983: Host country Germany
  • 1983: Bomarzo
  • 1985: The anthropology and the portrait
  • 1986–87: The oath of the constitution
  • 1987: KPM – Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin
  • 1989: Israel : Land der Steine (Land of Stones)
  • 1989–90: The Berlin Wall – Metamorphose
  • 1990: Peregrination though Mark-Brandenburg
  • 1990: The Children of Berlin-Marzahn
  • 1991: Normandy – French Fisherman

Exhibitions
  • 1978: Gallery Franz Mehring, Berlin, Germany
  • 1979: Gallery Mutter Fourage, Berlin, Germany
  • 1983: Gallery Fioretta, Reflextions, group exhibition, Padua, Italy
  • 1983: Gallery II Diaframma-Canon, group exhibition, Milan, Italy
  • 1984: Berlin University of the Arts, Photos of an exhibition, solo exhibition, Berlin, Germany
  • 1985: Galleria fotografica comunale, Centro Culturale Pubblico Polivalente, group exhibition, Ronchi dei Legionari near Trieste, Italy
  • 1987: Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Street photography, S-Bahn sequences, Berlin Festival Gallery, 750 Years Berlin, group exhibition, Berlin, Germany
  • 1991: Gallery "Inselstraße *13", Metamorphose, group exhibition, Berlin, Germany
  • 1992: Local museum Wedding, Female Sphere – Women's Spaces, group exhibition, Berlin, Germany
  • 2004: Taranaki Art Gallery, Metamorphose, solo exhibition, New Plymouth, New Zealand
  • 2009: The House of Brandenburg-Prussian History, documentation about Brandenburg, Potsdam, Germany
  • 2009: European Commission in Germany, Fall of the Berlin Wall *1989, group exhibition, Berlin, Germany
  • 2009: Gallery at the culture centre Karlshorst, *20 Years of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, group exhibition, Berlin, Germany
  • 2010: Cafe Club International, Ulysses period of Facebook and Twitter, group exhibition, Vienna, Austria
  • 2012: House on Kleistpark (German Haus am Kleistpark), Hildegard Ochse (*1935 – *1997) – The Legacy of Photographer, solo exhibition, Berlin, Germany[7]
  • 2013: German State Parliament Brandenburg Landtag Brandenburg, TRANSITION (German WENDEZEIT) *1989 – *1991, solo exhibition, Potsdam, Germany[8]
  • 2014: 18m Salon, BÜROZEIT u.a. Ansichten einer Autorenfotografin (English Office hours and other views of an Auteur Photographer), Berlin, Germany
  • 2015: Kommunale Gallery Berlin, Between Her Own Viewpoint and Authentic Reality, The Photographic Oeuvre of Hildegard Ochse, Berlin, Germany[9]
  • 2016: C/O Berlin at the Amerika Haus, Kreuzberg – Amerika : Werkstatt für Photographie 1976 – 1986, group exhibition, Berlin, Germany[10][11]
  • 2018: Gallery Schwalenberg, Strong women in the arts – Female artist at dawn of Modernism, group exhibition, Schwalenberg, Germany
  • 2018: Forum for Fine Art, Encounters with reality, group exhibition, Heidelberg, Germany
  • 2018: Reinbeckhallen, Money – Madness – Mind, group exhibition, Berlin, Germany
  • 2019: Wall Memorial at the German Bundestag, Was vergeth - was bleibt (English Whats gone - what stays), group exhibition, Berlin, Germany[12]
  • 2020: Kunstmuseum Dieselkraftwerk Cottbus: 1990. Fotografische Positionen aus einem Jahr, über ein Jahr (English Photographic position of one year, over one year), group exhibition, Cottbus[13]

Further reading
  • Großstadtkirchen: Bilder der Gegenwart. Herder Publisher, Freiburg, 1982
  • Frauenzimmer – Frauenräume. district office Berlin-Wedding, Berlin, 1982
  • Barbara Köppe, Fotografien 1988 – 1990, Hildegard Ochse, Metamorphosen 1990. Gallery "Inselstrasse 13", Berlin, 1991 [14]
  • Lothar Schirmer: Martin Rupprecht, Bühnenbilder und Kostüme, Henschel, Berlin, 2005, P.119-121; ISBN 3-89487-524-0
  • Wolfgang Farkas, Stefanie Seidl, Heiko Zwirner: Nachtleben Berlin. 1974 bis Heute, Metrolit, Berlin, 2013, P. 34; ISBN 978-3-8493-0304-4
  • Florian Ebner, Felix Hoffmann, Inka Schube, Thomas Weski, Virginia Heckert (Autor): Werkstatt für Photographie 1976–1986: C/O Berlin, Museum Folkwang Essen, Sprengel Museum Hannover. Koenigs Books, 2016, ISBN 3-96098-042-6 P. 69-73; 233
  • Jürgen Scheffler, Stefan Wiesekopsieker, Benjamin Ochse (Autor): Starke Frauen in der Kunst: Künstlerinnen im Aufbruch zur Moderne, Exhibition Catalogue, Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, 2018; ISBN 373951079X P. 115-121

References
  1. "Authors index: Maria Römer-Krusemeyer". Literatur Portal Westfalen. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  2. "University Staff directory". University FU Berlin. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  3. "Profile: Hildegard Ochse Estate: Photographer". Augsburg, Germany: Der Greif. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
  4. "Online Artis Index: Hildegard Ochse". Berlinische Gallery. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  5. "Deutscher Bundestag – Hildegard Ochse". Deutscher Bundestag (in German). Retrieved February 13, 2019.
  6. "Profile: Hildegard Ochse Estate: Photographer", Der Greif.
  7. "Hildegard Ochse (1935–1997). Das Vermächtnis einer Autorenfotografin". Haus am Kleistpark. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  8. "WENDEZEIT 1989 – 1991". German State Parliament Brandenburg. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  9. "Between Her Own Viewpoint and Authentic Reality The Photographic Oeuvre of Hildegard Ochse". Kommunale Gallerie. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  10. "Kreuzberg – Amerika Werkstatt für Photographie 1976–1986". C/O Berlin. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  11. "A Different Kind of Protest". Aperture. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  12. https://www.bundestag.de/kunst#url=L2Jlc3VjaGUvYXVzc3RlbGx1bmdlbi9rdW5zdF9hdXNzdC93YXMtdmVyZ2VodC02NjYxNjg=&mod=mod441922
  13. https://www.blmk.de/programm/1990-fotografie-ausstellung/
  14. Barbara Köppe, Fotografien 1988 – 1990, Hildegard Ochse, Metamorphosen 1990: Galerie "Inselstrasse 13", 17. Oktober bis 9. November 1991. Berlin: Galerie Inselstr. 13. 1991.

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