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Biography Eric Klemm Born in a small German town in 1939, Eric Klemm studied five years at art school in Trier, Germany, from 1956-1961. After working for seven years as an art director in Heidelberg, he turned seriously to photography in 1968 when an image of his was published in twen, one of Germany's top magazines at the time. He was offered a job at the magazine by Willi Fleckhaus, the influential art director. That same year, Klemm received an award from the prestigious Art Director's Club New York for one of his twen photographs. It was this image that jump-started his career. Eric Klemm's first book Leute, was published in Mannheim, Germany in 1971, followed closely by Girls Girls, which included a foreword by Willi Fleckhaus and text by Karl Pawek, organizer of the second and third World Exhibition of Photography in 1968 and 1973 by Stern Magazine, both of which included work by Eric Klemm. In 1974, Klemm moved to Duesseldorf, Germany, at the time a center for the new European avantgarde. He opened a studio, worked with numerous advertising agencies and art directors and had his work published in magazines such as Stern, Zeit-Magazin, Freundin, PHOTO and Lui. From 1973 until 1980, Klemm was a contributor to the German edition of Playboy under the direction of Rainer Woertmann. He became a member of Germany's Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Photographie. Professional Camera published in March 1980 a large portfolio on his work with an article written by Klaus Tiedge, at the time editor-in-chief. In 1980, Eric Klemm needed a break. He left Germany for good for the small tropical island Cocoa in the Indian Ocean Republic of Maldives, which was to become his home for the next fifteen years. Ten years later he published two books on the Maldives one of which is all about his endeavor of living on his uninhabited island. Klemm spent seven years in France where he actually wanted to retire, but began painting that eventually brought him to back to photo-related art and fine art photography. Klemm moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1998 and began in 2003 a new career as a photo related artist. He and his family now live on Salt Spring Island, not far from Vancouver. His first new photographic work, his project Metamorphosis, has been exhibited in Vancouver, Toronto, and New York, including FotoFest 2006, The Eleventh International Biennial of Photography and Photo Related Art, Houston, Texas, and Foto&Photo, Photography Festival, Cesano Maderno, Milano, Italy, 2006. In April 2007, Eric Klemm was awarded 1st prize, category Portrait/Culture by Prix de la Photographie, Paris, 2007, for his recent book project: Silent Warriors - Portraits of North American Indians, and 3rd prize, category Fine Art/Abstract, for his conceptual series Shavings. In August 2007 he was also awarded 2nd prize, Fine Art/Portrait, by International Photography Awards/Lucie Awards, Los Angeles, for Portraits of North American Indians. One of his new works has recently been selected for exhibition at the prestigious National Portrait Gallery, London, the Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, Colorado, and the Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, USA. Besides the work on Silent Warriors in 2006/07, Klemm worked on a second new project titled Florabundance which became his fifth coffee table book. The book will be released in Spring 2008 by Bitsch Media Edition, Birkenau, Germany. STEIDL Publishers, Goettingen, Germany, widely seen as the world's most distinguished printing and publishing company, is going to publish his sixth book, the award winning portrait series Silent Warriors, in Fall/Winter 2008, Eric Klemm's so far largest and most significant photography project. List of Projects: |
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