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About German photographer, Robert HÄUSSER (1924-2013)
Robert Häusser completed an apprenticeship in a photography business in 1942 and attended the Graphische Fachschule in Stuttgart. From 1949 he studied under Heinrich FREYTAG and Walter HEGE at the School of Applied Arts in Weimar. His first exhibitions followed in 1950, such as at the first Photokina in Cologne. After increasing reprisals, he fled to West Germany in 1952. In Mannheim, he set up his own studio for photography and subsequently earned his living by publishing numerous illustrated books about cities and landscapes, with commissions for industrial companies and with portraits of personalities from politics and culture. In old age, he no longer took photographs, but instead focused on archiving and organizing his work. His Robert Archive comprises 64,000 negatives. His entire oeuvre consists exclusively of black and white images.
In his artistic photography, he developed a pictorial approach based on representational motifs. His motifs dealt with transience, with the transformation of nature by man, with traces in the landscape. His works were created independently of the artistic and photographic trends of the time, even if parallels to New Objectivity, Subjective Photography or Magical Realism can often be seen in parts of his work.
Photo books by and with works by Robert HÄUSSER
- 'Robert Häusser' (2000); 'Robert Häusser. Aus dem photographischen Werk 1938-2004' 2004); 'Ins Wort gesetzt' (2007); 'Die Berliner Mauer' (2009); 'Schwarz und Weiß. Stories with and without photography' (2013); 'The world on the Upper Rhine. Photographs by Robert Häusser from the 1960s' (2022);
Awards (a selection)
- 1950: Silver medal at the 'Swedish Master Competition', Stockholm;
1960: photokina plaque for artistic achievement; 1st prize in the 'Deutscher Städtetag' competition, both in Cologne;
1961: Gold medal at the 3rd Biennale Internazionale, Venice;
1984: David Octavius Hill Medal of the Society of German Photographers GDL - German Photographic Academy; Art Prize of the City of Nordhorn;
1985: Cross of Merit I. Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his artistic life's work
1995: Hasselblad Award, Sweden; prize-winner for the wall design for the new building of the House of Representatives, Berlin;
2000: Cultural Award of the German Society for Photography DGPh;
Exhibitions
- 1988: 'Photographische Bilder', Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart;
2004/2005: 'Aus dem photographischen Werk 1938-2004', Forum Internationale Photographie, Mannheim;
2009: 'Das Moortagebuch. Photographs and Notes', Geeste-Groß Hesepe, Emsland Moormuseum; 'The Berlin Wall. Photographs and Quotes', Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim;
2010: 'Put into words. Contemporary Poetry to Photographs by Robert Häusser', Museum of Applied Arts Cologne;
2011: 'The daily bread', Museum of Bread Culture;
2013: 'By order... Photographs from Craft and Industry', Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim;
2022: 'The world on the Upper Rhine. Photographs by Robert Häusser from the 1960s', Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim;
Films
- 1972: Language of Light and Time, by Georg Bense (SR);
1986: Making the invisible visible, by Rudolf Werner (SDR);
2004: Robert Häusser - a life in pictures, by Kerstin Achenbach;
2010: Robert Häusser - Life and Work, by Rudij Bergmann;