As of: January 26, 2024, 4:48 p.m
By: Katja Kraft
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Legendary: Normal portraits were too bland for Abe Frajndlich.
That's why in 1996 he asked US actor Jack Lemmon to live up to his name - and pose in lemon yellow.
© Abe Frajndlich
The American star photographer Abe Frajndlich impresses with his retrospective in the art foyer of the Versicherungskammer Kulturstiftung München.
A conversation.
Was the adorable photo of Yoko Ono in foggy Central Park taken by chance?
An enthusiastic visitor to the art foyer of the Versicherungskammer Kulturstiftung München asks the great American photographer Abe Frajndlich.
He answers dryly: “Nothing happens with Yoko Ono by chance.” And then he says a sentence that the many who came to this artist talk were hoping for: “But I can tell a nice story about this picture.” Abe Frajndlich's stories are legendary.
He tells it orally and he tells it photographically.
And both full of passion.
Abe Frajndlich had several stars like Yoko Ono in front of the camera
So Yoko Ono.
“I have to admit: I was a little afraid of her before we met.
Because it is considered difficult.” But the man with the friendly name knew how to persuade the other person to be nice.
"I called a mutual friend and asked her: Can't you call Yoko Ono and ask her to be nice to me?" She did - and Yoko Ono was "the most charming lady I've ever met" during the shoot.
Cooked for him, joked with him and posed tirelessly for him despite the cold, drizzly winter weather on that February day in 1975.
Abe Frajndlich in front of his portrait of Yoko Ono (1975).
The photo never made it into the British “Elle”: “I hadn’t considered that she was persona non grata in England.
Because she was blamed for the breakup of the Beatles.” He took it calmly.
© Abe Frajndlich
When you hear the 77-year-old talking like that, you get the feeling that it wasn't just the influence of his friends.
Nomen est omen: This Abe Frajndlich is simply incredibly nice, not in the trite, almost derogatory sense, but nice in the original sense.
Affectionate, open, a thoroughgoing humanitarian.
Although philanthropy doesn't come naturally given his CV.
He was born Abraham Samuel Frajndlich to Polish Jews on May 28, 1946 in a camp for displaced persons in Frankfurt-Zeilsheim and was classified as a stateless person.
By the time he was ten, little Abe had already lived in four countries.
From Frankfurt the family moved to Tel Aviv, then back to Frankfurt, later to Paris and finally to the USA via Brazil.
There he found his home: Abe Frajndlich has lived in New York City since 1983.
Abe Frajndlich's photographs are peacemaking works of art
But the constant being torn from new homes, the horrors of the immediate post-war period and the trauma of the Holocaust did not lead to hopelessness in him.
Abe Frajndlich counters the horrors of this world with warmth.
He doesn't just photograph people, he communicates with his pictures, making viewers take a closer look at each other.
To recognize the other and thereby yourself, in the best case: to understand a little better.
This is how photography becomes a peace-building means of communication.
Around 200 works from the 1970s can be seen in the art foyer: dreamy street scenes, sensual nudes and always people, people, people.
The portraits of artists who influenced Frajndlich's life form a focus of the show.
Celina Lunsford, Esra Klein and Andrea Horvay have cleverly curated this.
Frajndlich's wit shines through not only in the images themselves, but also in their arrangement.
For example, by hanging the nude photographs between Frajndlich's detailed shots of chili peppers or banana leaves, the curators trick our brains into seeing dandelions at first glance in the images of intimate shaves or, conversely, human bottoms in the heart-shaped plants.
A game with our imagination.
Just the way Frajndlich loves it.
In a showcase you can see a photo of him as a boy with a school bag.
“Basically, I’m still the little smiling boy I was back then.
And during all the shoots, that little boy in me wanted to play with the little boy or girl opposite me.
Meet them in complete innocence without prejudice, just like children do.” Playful happiness.
Until April 1, 2024 in the art foyer of the Versicherungskammer Kulturstiftung München.
Maximilianstrasse 53;
daily from 9:30 a.m. to 6:45 p.m., free entry.