On the Cover Photo

Herlinde Koelbl

November 11, 2024

Societal roles, power and the relationship between appearances and reality are the themes for many of the photographer's long-term projects. The current cover motif from the Feine Leute (High Society) series also relates to these themes.
The picture of the couple dancing was taken in 1985 at the ‘Ball des Sports’ in Frankfurt on the Main. The tanned back of a lady, with finely-tied ribbon appliqués, and the casual hand of her dancing partner, beneath, are perfectly framed. The missing heads make the couple unidentifiable, so that they become representatives of the code of behaviour of so-called better society.

The photographer's long-term projects repeatedly explore the different forms of expression, rules, styles and dress codes of certain groups in society. Whether homes and living spaces or hairstyles and clothing, Herlinde Koelbl always develops conceptual series that go beyond simple documentary. With a precise eye, she repeatedly scrutinises her most important criteria for a successful image: “when it reaches beyond the moment; when it has a universal statement and energy.” And so the Feine Leute (High Society) series has lost none of its inherent insight into the saturation on display, the role clichés and the rituals of West German society in the early 1980s.

Koelbl travelled extensively, between 1979 and 1985, for her project. She photographed in Baden-Baden, Bayreuth, Berlin, Bonn, Frankfurt on the Main, Hamburg, Regensburg, St. Moritz and Vienna; but, primarily, in Munich, many times. She attended film, opera and press balls, festival openings, racing and winter sports festivities, fashion shows and even a magnificent princely wedding. “I always had myself accredited at the festivals,” Koelbl explains. Feine Leute, which she photographed with her Leica R4, was also “a completely free project, my own idea; it wasn't an assignment.”

Above all, it was body language and the relationship between men and women that took centre stage in the series: usually with close-up excerpts – direct, unsparing and often with a good dose of irony. Koelbl was always interested in “what body language reveals; what the moments can tell us about society and about people. When I danced, I tried to be part of the movement – sometimes closer to the edge, but also from the inside, I always tried to observe. My attitude is to move as organically as possible, not to stand out, and to be a good observer,” says the photographer, emphasising: “You mustn't be part of society; otherwise you lose the accurate perspective.”
Ulrich Rüter
Image: © Herlinde Koelbl

LFI 8.2024+-

You can find a comprehensive overview of her photographic work in LFI Magazine 8.2024. More

Herlinde Koelbl+-

10 Portrait Herlinde Koelbl ©Johannes Rodach
© Johannes Rodach

Herlinde Koelbl was born on 31st October 1939 in Lindau. After first studying fashion, it was in the mid seventies that she discovered photography as her creative medium of expression. She subsequently began to work on assignments for magazines, as well as creating an enormously productive series of publications of her own long-term photographic projects, which were often accompanied by interviews. Some of the projects also resulted in documentary films. Her sensitive and often philosophical interviews appeared regularly in the ZEITmagazin. Her 35mm-range work was primarily carried out with Leica cameras, and her medium format with a Hasselblad. Koelbl has published more than 20 photo books and has received numerous awards, including the Medal of Excellence (1987), the Dr Erich Salomon Prize of the DGPh (2001), the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2009), the Bavarian Order of Merit (2013), and the Leica Hall of Fame (2024). She lives and works in Neuried near Munich. More

 

On the Cover Photo

Herlinde Koelbl