Volker Hinz


Volker Hinz ) was a German photographer. Early in his career he became known for his political reportage and travel stories; now his portraits of artists, authors, fashion designers, sports men and politicians are better known.

Life

Volker was born in Hamburg in 1947; his direction in life was determined early on by photography. Even as a 20-year-old, he sold his first photos to newspapers. At the age of 24 he became head of the photo agency "Sven Simon" in Bonn – at that time the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1974 he became a member of the crew of staff photographers of the weekly magazine Stern in Hamburg. In 1978 he moved as a freelance photographer to Los Angeles until be became a staffer again for Stern magazine in New York. There many of his great stories, portraits and reportages made him known worldwide. Since 1986, back in Hamburg again, he worked out of his home town.

Oeuvre

At the beginning of his career in the 1970s, Volker Hinz formed his reputation with reports from the German political scene. Later, on behalf of the magazine, he took the opportunity for gripping stories and photographic documentations such as on New York nightlife, on Hollywood, on Mexican Oil, on Argentina and Palm Beach for which he received awards at World Press, Art Directors Club Germany and Lead Award.

Reception

Stern Magazine: "The photographer Volker Hinz is... a contemporary painter. The contemporary painter among the great photographers, to be exact. For decades, the photographer Volker Hinz portrays the star, the famous and the powerful of this world. Now he puts himself once in the center congratulates to his 60th Birthday."
Stern Magazine: "For nearly three decades, the photographer Volker Hinz works for Stern. His reports from around the world, his pictorial stories and especially his black and white portraits of international personalities establish his superior rank as a photographer and have strongly influenced the look of the magazine. Stern – photographer Volker Hinz presented in a photo exhibition for the first time a selection of his works, including portraits of famous personalities".
Artist Talk between Volker Hinz and Ulrich Rueter, Gruner + Jahr Publishing House: "For almost forty years, Volker Hinz has decisively influenced the visual appearance of Stern magazine. Hardly a book without his sovereign portraits of celebrities from around the world. Now the publisher Gruner + Jahr honors him with an exhibition and with the latest volume in the series Stern Fotografie portfolio." To make experiences from photographs is the art and the craft of Volker Hinz." What distinguishes him are 'kid gloves and eagle eyes'."
"Volker Hinz is one of the most prolific portrait photographers in the German press and his special ability is to add new aspects beyond the known add clichés, in particular to the portraits of famous – and sometimes infamous – contemporaries in the fields of politics, film, literature, sports and fashion. The bare soccer players Pele and Beckenbauer in the shower or Woody Allen, who forbids himself the mouth, Kate Moss with golden feet: there are not only pictures, but stories told by the camera of Volker Hinz"

Solo exhibitions

2013: Dokumentation – Gespräche mit Volker Hinz – Fotograf – A film by Tom Krausz