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Herbert Fried

Film stars on set and in private

09.11.2024 - 26.01.2025 ,
Museum Moderner Kunst Wörlen Passau (Museum of Modern Art Wörlen Passau)

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With this exhibition, the MMK Passau and the lending agency Atelier & Friends from Grafenau are unearthing a previously hidden treasure of supra-regional significance: on display are photographs of film stars from the 1950s and 1960s from the estate of the now unjustly forgotten set photographer Herbert Fried (Berlin 1926 - 1981 Rome).

Herb Fried, as he called himself in his adopted country of America after the end of the war, repeatedly spent long periods in Rome, the centre of the film industry at the time. There he photographed film stars such as Romy Schneider, Alain Delon, Elke Sommer, Brigitte Bardot, Gina Lollobrigida, Audrey Hepburn, Yul Brynner, Terence Hill and others on behalf of international agencies, both on the set of the Cinecittà and in private surroundings. The atmosphere is often so relaxed and familiar that a friendship between photographer and model(s) can be assumed. The photos taken by Herb Fried of Alain Delon and Romy Schneider during a private restaurant visit in Rome, for example, show a third full plate on the table - the photo shoot thus culminates in a dinner together.

The Passau exhibition reconstructs Herbert Fried's eventful biography with archive material for the first time and presents his photographic legacy in a museum setting. The photos came to the Bavarian Forest in a roundabout way: Fried bequeathed part of his work to his friend Klaus Hoins from Hanover, who passed it on to Margarethe Eder, a photography enthusiast, who received the boxes full of
boxes full of unsorted photos, black and white prints, negatives and slides to the Atelier & Friends agency 15 years ago. Together they marvelled and archived the material in folders and digitally in a database.

Without any great ambitions, some of it was initially published on a website. A few years ago, the BRAVO publishing house became aware of the collection. It was in possession of thousands more of Herbert Fried's pictures, which he generously gave to Atelier and Friends free of charge.

Markus Sieghart, project manager and designer at Atelier und Friends, enthuses: "As passionate designers, art and aesthetics are in our genes. We immediately recognised the extraordinary nature of these photos. Our collaboration with the Museum Moderner Kunst Wörlen gave rise to the idea of making this photographic treasure accessible to the public in an exhibition". Lutz Peter from Hanover has also shown great commitment by lending one of the few remaining copies of Herbert Fried's autobiography and original photographic equipment for the exhibition.

Last edited on 14.10.2024

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Associated museum

Museum / Exhibition Centre: Museum Moderner Kunst Wörlen Passau (Museum of Modern Art Wörlen Passau)

Modern and contemporary art in a historical setting: In an old town house of Romanesque origin, the Museum of Modern Art presents works from its collection of 20th and 21st century art in changing...

Location: Passau