Photographer Thomas Billhardt dies at the age of 87

Thomas Billhardt is dead. As the Camera Work gallery in Berlin, which manages his life’s work, announced, the photographer died at the age of 87. His family also confirmed the death. The professional association of freelance photographers honored Billhardts “unmistakable style”war, suffering, but also the hope of the people.

“With the death of Thomas Billhardt we have lost one of the most important reportage photographers in the history of the German division”the gallery said. His work, which he recorded in more than 50 countries, gave people a voice. “He became world famous with his photographs of the Vietnam War in the 1960s.”

In 1974, Billhardt also took photos of Brezhnev’s visit to Berlin. He photographed the famous “Brotherly kiss” between SED party leader Erich Honecker and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1974.

Billhardt was born in Chemnitz in 1937. According to the gallery, he began training as a photographer at the age of 14 under the guidance of his mother. At the beginning of his career, he was a factory photographer in a brown coal open-cast mine and a publishing photographer for the postcard publisher Bild und Heimat.

For GDR citizens, his pictures were a view of the world – they are still remembered by many today, praised the professional association of freelance photographers.