Arno Fischer

Arno Fischer (Wedding, Berlin, 14 April 1927 – Neustrelitz, 13 September 2011) was a German photographer and university teacher.

Life

Early years and war Arno Fischer's father worked as a type setter. Arno attended school locally from 1933 till 1941 when he started training in aspects of carpentry (wood carving/modelling, pattern making). On reaching the age of 17 he joined the army in 1944/45, concluding his military career as a prisoner of war held by the British, who released him in 1946. These features are abundantly evident in Situation Berlin, another project on which he worked between 1953 and 1960. By 1960 he was working intensively on preparing for the publication of the resulting collection by Edition Leipzig, evoking the moods and sights of the rapidly changing city in the 1950s. Pictures from the book, by now fully written and prepared for launch, were on display on the publisher's stand at the Leipzig Book Fair in the autumn of 1961. The fair was held shortly after the government had suddenly started their feverish construction of the Berlin Wall, which for the next (nearly) three decades would cut off East Berlin from the west. A group of officials stopped off at the publisher's stand to look at some of the pictures on display under the "Situation Berlin" banner. One said to the others the chilling words, "Berlin ist kein Situation mehr" ("Berlin is no longer a situation"). The reference was regarding the exodus of East Germans to the west through Berlin that had been blocked by the new wall, but the meaning for Arno Fischer and his publishers was that Situation Berlin would not be published in the foreseeable future.

Changes Changes experienced during the build-up to reunification and its aftermath brought upheaval to the world of women's fashion magazines: Sibylle, after struggling on for a few more years, finally ran out of money in 1995. More positively, Fischer's international reputation was no longer constricted by the political isolationism of the old German Democratic Republic. With his wife, he involved himself in "Almediterrana 92", a major photographic project in Spain, and his work was increasingly exhibited across and beyond Germany. Situation Berlin was finally published in 2001.

Public awards 1986 National Prize of East Germany 2000 Dr. Erich Salomon Award from the German Society for Photography 2010 Hannah Höch Prize for a lifetime of artistic accomplishment