BOJE, Walter

About German photographer, Walter BOJE (1905-1992)

Walter BOJE was a photographer and pioneer of formative color photography. The former Secretary General of the German Academy of Aeronautical Research opened a photocopying business in Berlin after World War II, worked as a photojournalist and later went to Hamburg as a theater photographer. In 1954, he moved to the Agfa company in Leverkusen, for which he worked until 1969 in the Phototechnical Headquarters and as head of the advertising studio, among other positions. His color photographs were highly regarded by photographers of the time such as Heinz HAJEK-HALKE and Peter CORNELIUS, and set the trend for younger colleagues such as Horst H. BAUMANN and Kilian BREIER. He taught at the German Institute for Journalistic Education in Düsseldorf, at the University of Munich and at the German School of Journalism in Munich. He was a member of the Bund Freischaffender Foto-Designer (Association of Freelance Photo Designers) and for twelve years a member of the board of directors and long-time head of the Image Section of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie (DGPh), which named him its honorary member in 1976 and awarded him the 'Goldenen Ehrennadel' (Golden Pin of Honor) in 1985.

(Photo)books by and about the work of Walter BOJE

• 'Das kleine Agfacolor 1 × 1' (1956); 'Vom Foto zum Lichtbild' (1956); 'Farbe überall' (1960); 'Magie der Farbenphotographie' (1961); 'Mut zur Farbe' (1963); 'Fotografieren mein Hobby' (1965); 'Portraits in Color' (1976); 'Farbe im Photo. The history of. Farbphotographie von 1861-1981' (1981, together with Fritz Binder, Klaus op ten Höfel, Gert Koshofer and Rolf Sachsse); 'Fotografie 1919-1979' (1984); 'Geburtstag' (2005).