OCHSE, Hildegard

About German photographer, Hildegard OCHSE (1935-1997)

Hildegard OCHSE initially worked self-taught from 1975, later in the 'Werkstatt für Photographie' founded by Michael SCHMIDT in Berlin-Kreuzberg. There she took lessons from Ulrich GÖRLICH and Wilmar KOENIG and until 1981 took part in various workshops with Lewis BALTZ, John GOSSAGE, Larry FINK and André GELPKE. As early as 1978, she began teaching photography at the Landesbildstelle and the Pädagogische Hochschule Berlin. From 1981 she worked as a freelance photographer in Berlin.
As an author photographer, she took photos of the S-Bahn lines in West Berlin in 1983. In this series, she focused on the varying degrees of perception of optical impressions. This was followed by her work on the subject of 'Zoological Gardens', which was inspired by an essay by John Berger and observations on zoos by Theodor W. Adorno. For a specifically Berlin work, in which she portrayed the city's servants, she took as her models portraits of politicians by Erich SALOMON, portraits by August SANDER and recently published working pictures by Lee FRIEDLANDER. In a series at the Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur (KPM), she focused on the individual faces of the women and men in connection with the manual skills they practiced. Hildegard OCHSE died in 1997 at the age of just 62, leaving behind more than 5,000 black and white photographs.

Photo books by and about the work of Hildegard OCHSE

• 'Hildegard Ochse. Das Leben einer Autorenfotografin' (The life of an author photographer, in planning)