Enlarge image
One of Martin Langer's best-known pictures: A right-wing extremist giving the Hitler salute during the riots in Rostock-Lichtenhagen in 1992
Photo: Martin Langer / Agency Focus
He went down in the history books with his socially critical photos: The multiple award-winning photographer Martin Langer is dead. "We are sad," his agency Focus wrote on Instagram.
»Our dear friend, colleague, photographer @martin.langer.hamburg passed away.
Our sympathy goes to his relatives.« When asked by SPIEGEL, the agency referred to close circles of colleagues.
"Martin Langer was a passionate photographer who was always on the go," they say.
Born in Göttingen in 1956, Langer initially trained as a radio and television technician.
He later studied photo design in Bielefeld and worked as a freelance photographer for various agencies and magazines.
Langer produced several reports on political and social issues.
In 1995 he received the Fuji Euro Press Photo Award for his photo documentation of the occupation of the Brent Spar oil platform by Greenpeace.
Langer became particularly well-known for his photo series commissioned by SPIEGEL on the right-wing extremist riots in Rostock-Lichtenhagen in 1992. One photo shows the unemployed machinist Harald Ewert raising his hand in the Hitler salute.
The photo caused malice: There was a wet spot in the crotch of Ewert's training pants.
It became a symbol of the »ugly German«, which was also shown again and again in exhibitions.
Langer also produced photographs from the fields of travel and everyday life, often with a satirical undertone.
Most recently, in 2021, he published an illustrated book about life in East Westphalia in the 1980s under the title »Land of Smiles«.
ime