Hans Hasenpflug

Hans Hasenpflug (1907–1977) was born in Germany and migrated to Australia where he became a portrait and fashion photographer and was naturalised.

Hans Hasenpflug
Born1907
Mainz, Germany
Died1977 (age 70)
NationalityGerman/Australian
OccupationPhotographer

Biography

Hans Hasenpflug was born in Germany in 1907 where he was trained as a clerk for an exporting firm in the Munsterlager.[1] He migrated to Sydney in 1927 and was a salesman in a firm similar to the one in Germany.[2] Unlike other important German photographer migrants to Australia[3] he is likely only to have become interested in photography after his arrival, around the time he was working with Leica Photo Service in 1932 in their processing lab.[1] Throughout 1935-1937, he worked in the studio of fashion photographer Russell Roberts (1904–99)[4] which launched his professional career as a photographer.

Photography/career
Hans Hasenpflug, Rhapsody in satin, 1937

Hasenpflug was self-taught and specialised in glamour, fashion[5][6] and product advertising, with some portraiture, including one of painter Hans Heysen.[7] Success in his career was marked by his imagery being taken up by The Sydney Morning Herald Women's Supplement and Table Talk. Hasenpflug mirrored the approach taken by Hungarian Martin Munkácsi who in the 1920s brought spontaneity to his fashion shots shot on location such as his Beach!, (1930, Hungarian Museum of Photography) which uses a similarly high angle of view as Hasenpflug's 1937 fashion shot taken from above a wharf (below, in the Art Gallery of New South Wales ).

Hasenpflug's photographs were displayed in the portrait, commercial and pictorial segments of the 1938 150th Anniversary Salon held in celebration of the colonisation of Australia.[1] One of his better known works is in soft focus; a child leaning over a balustrade, praised as a representation of "modern" photography and as "an outstanding study of light and shade".[1]

Hans Hasenpflug, Glasses, 1947
Untitled (Girl on wharf, fashion shot), Hans Hasenpflug, 1937
Cactus, Hans Hasenpflug, 1947

At the time of the 150th Anniversary Salon, Hasenpflug worked briefly in Melbourne for Athol Shmith's studio in Collins Street.[8] From 1942-1945, he moved to the commercial studio of Austin-Murcott and Ritter-Jesppersen.[1]

In the 1940s, Hasenpflug began developing an industrial clientele but the field was off limits to him as an 'enemy alien' during the war and he had to transition to child portraiture.[1] At the end of the war, Hans was made a citizen in Australia. In the 1950s, he was a printer at Latrobe Studios with Bruno Benini whose entry into fashion he encouraged.[9] Henry Talbot[10] replaced him there when he moved back to Sydney to open his own commercial illustration studio in Drury Lane in Mosman.

Before he fell ill and ended his career, he worked for Myer department store, specialising in product advertising.

References
  1. Newton, Gael (1980), Silver and Grey : Fifty Years of Australian Photography, Angus and Robertson, ISBN 978-0-207-14109-6
  2. Newton, Gael (1988). Shades of Light. Canberra: Australian National Gallery. p. 117. ISBN 0642081522.
  3. Ennis, Helen (2007), Photography and Australia, Reaktion Books, ISBN 978-1-86189-323-9
  4. English, Bonnie L; Pomazan, Liliana (2010), Australian fashion unstitched : the last 60 years, Cambridge University Press, pp. 62–63, ISBN 978-0-521-75649-5
  5. Daw, Robyn; Bligh Voller Nield; Queensland University of Technology. Cultural Precinct (2003), Architects of glamour : + masters of style : excerpts from a century of fashion photography, QUT Cultural Precinct, ISBN 978-1-74107-016-3
  6. Newton, Gael; Jolly, Martyn; Van Wyk, Susan; Messenger, Jane; Bullock, Natasha; Crombie, Isobel; Van De Ven, Anne-Marie; Sayers, Andrew and Byron, Sandra. The golden age of Australian fashion photography [Reproduction and comment on one image chosen by curators and historians as representative of the work of nine major Australian photographers from the 1930s to the 1960s.] [online]. Photofile, No. 71, Winter 2004: 36-41. Availability:<https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=200403606;res=IELAPA> ISSN: 0811-0859.
  7. Robinson, J., & Heysen, H. (1992). Hans Heysen: The Creative Journey. South Australia State Government Publications.
  8. Mention in State Library of Victoria article on an Athol Shmith fashion photograph
  9. Bruno Benini: Creating the Look”, Powerhouse Museum 31 July 2010 to Feb 2011
  10. Susan van Wyck, Henry Talbot Fashion Photographer: Out of Sight, National Gallery of Victoria article
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