Hans Georg Berger

Hans Georg Berger is a German-born photographer and writer, who lives in Berlin, Elba and in Laos.

Biography

Born in 1951 in Trier, Germany, he went on to collaborate closely in the 1970s with the artist Joseph Beuys, who was a key influence on his concept of photography, and thereafter with the French writer Hervé Guibert (1955–91).

He was director of the International Munich Theatre Festival from 1977 to 1983 and co-founder with Hans Werner Henze of the Munich Biennale music theatre festival. He also helped to set up AIDA, an international human rights watch group for artists.

Since the late 1980s Berger has become increasingly involved in a series of long-term photography projects looking at dimensions of the world religions. He created extensive work on Theravada Buddhism, Shi'ite Islam, Catholicism and Taoism. In the city of Luang Prabang in Northern Laos, he founded the Buddhist Archive of Photography to digitize and preserve more than 35.000 historical photographs taken by the monks of Laos, and where his exhibition The Floating Buddha has been installed permanently at the monastery of Vat Khili.

On the Island of Elba (Italy) he has been involved since 1977 with the restoration of the Eremo di Santa Caterina, a former Franciscan friary, as an arts centre, and the creation of a botanical garden dedicated to the spontaneous flora of the Tuscan Archipelago, the Orto dei Semplici Elbano, in 1994. At the monastery's medieval "Hortus Conclusus" he created a garden of ancient roses that over the years attracted a great number of artists, writers and gardeners from all corners of the world.

Publications

by Hans Georg Berger:

  • Het Bun Dai Bun – Laos, Sacred Rituals of Luang Prabang, London 2000 ISBN 1-903391-02-4
  • Ceremonies Sacrees de Luang Prabang, Paris 2001
  • The Floating Buddha. The Revival of Vipassana Meditation in Laos, 4th edition, New York/Luang Prabang 2009 ISBN 978-0-9844483-1-9
  • The Learning Photographer. Scholarly texts on Hans Georg Berger's art work in Laos and Iran , New York/Luang Prabang 2009 ISBN 978-0-9844483-0-2
  • Guibert en Egypte, Berlin 2013
  • My Sacred Laos, Chicago 2015 ISBN 978-1-932476-71-2
  • Giardini dell'Eremo, New York/Rio nell'Elba, 2015 ISBN 978-1-941811-01-6
  • Monks and the Camera, New York/Luang Prabang, 2016 ISBN 978-1-941811-03-0
  • Bei genauerem Hinsehen. Fotografien, Berlin 2016
  • with other authors:
  • Hans Georg Berger and Herve Guibert, Bordeaux 1992: Dialogue d'Images ISBN 2-905810-90-4
  • Hans Georg Berger and Herve Guibert, Arles 1992: Lettres d'Egypte ISBN 2-7427-0557-0
  • Hans Georg Berger and Hugh Honour, Arles 1998: Carnets Khmers ISBN 2-7427-0707-7
  • Hans Georg Berger and Khamvone Boulyaphone, Luang Prabang 2010: Treasures of the Buddhist Archive of Photography, Luang Prabang/Laos ISBN 978-09844483-3-3
  • John Alan Farmer, New York 2010: The Self-In-Relation. On Hans Georg Berger's Photographs, ISBN 978-0-9844483-8-8
  • Boris von Brauchitsch/Saeid Edalatnejad (ed), Heidelberg 2017: Einsicht. Drei Reisen in die innerste Welt des schiitischen Islam. Fotografien von Hans Georg Berger und frühen iranischen Fotografen, ISBN 978-3-86828-818-6


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