Peter Bock-Schroeder (1913-2001)
Peter Bock-Schroeder was born in Hamburg on November 30th 1913. In 1929, at the age of 16, Bock-Schroeder left home to find a future in Berlin. He enrolled in an apprentice program at Atelier Binder studios. After months spent “retouching negatives and positives, playing the peek-a-boo clown for children’s portraits and going to buy the bread rolls for the boss,” he left the studio and enrolled at the Bräuhaus photo school.
After two years at Bräuhaus, at the age of 18, he began his professional career as a journeyman photographer, chronicling his travels through Sweden, England and Belgium. “Travel is the best education for a photographer,” he wrote. “In those wander years I was able to experiment and shoot however I felt like. I had time, there were no `musts’ and earning a living wasn’t an issue. I was married to my camera.”
When, in 1938, as the Nazi war machine geared up for the coming invasion of Poland and the state-run Kristallnacht pogrom signaled the beginning of all-out war against Germany's jewish population, Bock- Schroeder attempted to flee to Holland. He was arrested and sent back to Germany. When the war broke out on September 1st 1939, Bock-Schroeder enlisted in the Luftwaffe. During the war he served as aerial gunner and war correspondent in Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Corps.In 1945, he applied for employment at the fledgling German News Service (today dpa). He was hired on the spot by Sefton Delmer. As news agency photo-journalist, Bock-Schroeder traveled throughout Allied occupied Germany and the neighboring nations of Europe. In 1949, Bock-Schroeder, then 36, was hired by Henri Nannen for “Stern Magazine” as photo journalist, and sent on assignments around the world. He also worked for “Quick Magazine” and “Revue”.
He became a wanderer, photographing in Russia (the first German photographer admitted after the war), in North and South America (where he felt particular affinity for Native Americans), as well as Europe and the Middle East.
In 1972 he worked with Otl Aicher during the Munich Olympics, as photographer and coordinator of the international press team. At the age of 60 he signed a contract with the “Munich International Airport - Press Department”. His architectural and portrait works of that time have been published in books and magazines.
On February 19th 2001 Peter Bock-Schroeder died, age 87, in Munich.
- Steve Dougherty |
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Peter Bock-Schroeder, Russie, 1956
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Peter Bock-Schroeder, Russie, 1956
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Peter Bock-Schroeder, Russie, 1965
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Peter Bock-Schroeder, Russie, 1956
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Peter Bock-Schroeder, Russie, 1956
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Peter Bock-Schroeder, Russie, 1956
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Peter Bock-Schroeder, Russie, 1956
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