TrépanierBaer Presents Fred Herzog: Pictures

Exhibition runs from September 8th through to October 9th, 2010

At a surface level, Herzog’s photographs can be categorized as time capsules, however, their essence is far more erudite. From 1953 onward, Herzog walked the streets of Vancouver and other cities in North America in order to experience their metropolitan dwellings. As a flâneur, he took photographs of the downtown streets illuminated by technicolour neon lights, the multi-hued exotica and curio shops of a Chinatown, the dilapidated remnants of housing projects, solitary streetscapes and of people – some socially marginalized and others ensconced in the routines and practices of their daily lives. Regardless of what he captured on film, little, if any, of the urban settings or figures were posed or staged, but photographed as Herzog encountered them. He is acutely aware of the aesthetic quality of the impromptu scenes he has photographed, but still remains at a slight remove from what he has observed.