Konrad Helbig (original) (raw)

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German photographer

Konrad Helbig
Born (1917-06-07)7 June 1917Leipzig, German Empire
Died 17 February 1986(1986-02-17) (aged 68)Mainz, West Germany
Known for photography, art history, archeology
Website www.deutschefotothek.de/documents/kue/70055314

Konrad Helbig (1917–1986) was a German photographer, art historian and archaeologist.[1] He is mostly known for intimate images of young Sicilian men, discovered only after his death.

Helbig was a soldier in Wehrmacht, fighting in the Soviet Union during World War II. He was taken into captivity as prisoner of war. Helbig was able to return in 1947 from Soviet captivity. Immediately thereafter, at the age of thirty, he began studying art history and archeology. He was particularly interested in the Mediterranean cultures. After graduation, he traveled many times to the Mediterranean over the next few decades. Helbig worked both as a photographer and author of journal articles, with publications such as travel magazine Merian and Atlantis. He also published picture books, such as the volume on Sicily, published in 1956. Helbig mainly photographed in black and white. An essential exception, however, are color slide positives, which were intended for his slide lectures.[_citation needed_]

Helbig is mostly known for intimate images of young Sicilian men. Only after his death in Mainz in 1986 were the nude photographs of young men discovered in his estate. The photographs, some of which were taken in the 1950s, are seen in the tradition of Wilhelm von Gloeden and Guglielmo Plüschow.[_citation needed_]

Helbig's photographic work is held in the archives of the Deutsche Fotothek in Dresden including 160,000 photographs, of which 60,000 are color slides;[2] in the picture archive Foto Marburg of the University of Marburg (23,800 photographs, of which 11,000 are of Greece and 6,000 of Italy);[3] and in the State Archive Hamburg within the collection of the German Society for Photography archive.[_citation needed_]

  1. ^ "Aus den Archiven III: Konrad Helbig - am Mittelmeer. Fotografische Erkundungen 1954-1985". Retrieved 2018-06-03.
  2. ^ "Konrad Helbig in Deutsche Fotothek". deutschefotothek.de. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  3. ^ "Konrad Helbig". fotomarburg.de. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  4. ^ "Viaggio in Italia II: Konrad Helbig - Herbert List". artdaily.com. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  5. ^ "Marins, Légionnaires, Ouvriers". photography-now.com. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  6. ^ "Konrad Helbig. Am Mittelmeer". andesmuseum-bonn.lvr.de. Retrieved 2018-06-04.