Werner Forman Archive returns to fotofringe
Werner Forman Archive press release – 5 April, 2018.
Werner Forman was a globe-trotting photographer who spent his life recording ancient sites, cultures and art. He was co-author and sole photographer of more than eighty books, and contributed images to thousands of others. In his many journeys he travelled to more than 55 countries photographing everything from ancient ruins to museum objects and lifestyles of fascinating cultures. His life’s work is contained in the Werner Forman Archive. This has thousands of images, published and unpublished, of civilisations ranging from T’ang China to the Vikings.
In his 70-year career, Werner Forman photographed many important centres of culture. He took pictures of archaeological sites, evocative landscapes, architecture, art and artefacts from many museum and private collections. Some of the subjects included in the archive are Egypt, Nubia, Middle East, Greece, Rome, Celts, Vikings, Byzantium, the Islamic world, the Moors, Scythians, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Africa, Indian, Japan, China, Southeast Asia, Oceania, pre-Columbian America, Native Americans and Inuit. Unfortunately, now some of the objects and historical sites he pictured are endangered or have been looted and destroyed.
Werner Forman died in 2010, and his estate discovered numerous new photographs which were transferred to the Werner Forman Archive where academic staff with qualifications in archaeology, art and history are continuing the cataloguing and digitising, so new images are continually being added to the collection.
“We have a superb selection of image relating to historical art and objects, as well as architecture and the lifestyles of traditional peoples from Mongolia to Africa, which Werner recorded when he visited them, and these cultures have been weakened or sometimes disappeared entirely,” says Barbara Heller, the Director of Werner Forman Archive.
Werner Forman Archive at fotofringe
Come to visit the Werner Forman Archive at Table 24 in the Battlebridge Room 17 April at Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG from 9.30-17.30 www.fotofringelondon.com
“Thank you so much for showing me so many marvellous things,” Sir David Attenborough.
Image Caption: L-R: Roman Emperor Hadrian, Pre-Columbian Death Mask from Peru, Golden Portrait of Tutankhamun; photos: Werner Forman © Werner Forman Archive.