Harald Mante, German photographer, artist, and designer. Since 1960 Mante had a great influence on the German color photography. He was in second generation a Bauhaus student and transformed the ideas of the famous masters of the Bauhaus into photography. His text books on composition and color design are known worldwide.
Artistic Work
Harald Mante received his early education at the Werkkunstschule Wiesbaden, where he took painting classes from Vincent Weber. There, he got first introduced to the ideas of the German »Bauhaus«. In 1960 he purchased his first camera, financed by delivering newspapers. He successfully participated in several photography contests in Germany. Finally, in 1964, after a three-month trip to Ireland, he decided to turn professional. In the following years, leading magazines such as Stern, Twen, Bild der Zeit, and Epoca published his work. In 1969, he published his first books on "Composition and Color Design" which was based on the fundamental principles of color design developed by famous painters such as Kandinsky, Klee, and Itten. In 1971, Harald Mante began teaching at the Gesamthochschule Wuppertal, and went to Dortmund University of Applied Art and Sciences in 1973 where he held a teaching position as full Professor for "Free and Experimental photography". Mante was invited as visiting professor in 1978 from the University of Saskatchewan and in 1989 from the Rochester Institute of Technology and the Parsons School of DesignNew York City. He continued to work as a Photographer on a freelance basis throughout his academic career. In these years, his work revolved around themes like "space and time", "reflections", and "self-shadows" and he published numerous books and journal articles. In 1988, Harald Mante and Eva Witter started a major art project called "Bildräume – Diaphane Metamorphosen von Schlössern in Europa" a black-and-white photographic work combining exterior and interior spaces of European castles on multiple exposures. In 1993, a second project "Weitsichten" was initiated by the couple. In 2001, Harald Mante retired from his teaching position in Dortmund, but remained active, both as a fine art photographer and as an educator, teaching classes at the "Altenakademie Dortmund" and at the "European Art Academy" in Trier, as well as numerous workshops and seminars throughout the year. Harald Mante became a member of the German societies BFF in 1973 and DGPh in 1975.
1993 Museum für Photographie, Braunschweig, Germany
Video
Video documentary about Harald Mante's teaching and creative work, produced by the Eastman KODAK Company for its "Techniques of the Masters" broadcast series.
