Profession: Reporter

Rudi Frey (1941 – 2014) was an internationally active press photographer based in Rome, who was particularly prolific from the 1960s to the 1980s. With the exhibition ‘Rudi Frey – Professione: Reporter’, Salzburg’s Fotohof gallery offers insight into an era when the photographic image was still the central medium of visual journalism.

As a result, the profession of photojournalism was surrounded by an air of glamour, travel and adventure. In fact, the 1966 movie ‘Blow Up’ by Michelangelo Antonioni perfectly conveys the stylised image of a (male) photographer that was so prevalent at the time. Rudy Frey, it seems, epitomised this lifestyle: he studied film in Paris, modelled and worked as an assistant for David Bailey, before working as a photographer in Milan and Rome.

The exhibition ‘Rudi Frey – Professione: Reporter’ is complemented by a large number of self portraits that show the photographer – very much in the style of the afore-mentioned stereotype – as a successful, carefree and adventurous photojournalist. These self-orchestrations are juxtaposed with his reportages: compelling photo series from the UdSSR, his reportage on the Solidarność movement in Poland (which earnt him the Robert Capa Gold Medal in 1981), as well as series that go beyond current affairs – such as pictures of Silvio Berlusconi and Milan’s fashion scene.

Frey’s multi-faceted oeuvre not only gives insight into the life of a press photographer, but also the market he supplied and how this shaped his personality.

For further information visit Fotohof Salzburg