Erwin Quedenfeldt

Erwin Quedenfeldt (1869-1948) was an internationally renowned photographer. His career began with remarkable improvements of flash photography, including the invention of the synchronous flash. This was followed by frequently award-winning interiors, landscapes, and architectural photographs. He becomes famous for his unusual photographic documentation of the Lower Rhine. Avant la lettre he distinguishes between two photographic ways of seeing, one only imitative and one more creative. Throughout his life he is committed to the acceptance of the creative variant, an anticipation of subjective photography. His technique of Erwinography was also used by Picasso. Art photography and New Vision are critical of him. Few recognize the avant-gardism of his ideas. This monograph is the first to describe the life, work, and thought of this almost forgotten man, based on remotely published literature and newly discovered archival materials. It shows Quedenfeldt as a pioneer of post-mimetic photography, a forward-thinking conservationist of the countryside and nature, a visionary critic of technology and society, and an unswerving fighter for the freedom of art and thought. The history of photography must now be rewritten in parts.