Axel Benzmann

Axel Benzman, born in Berlin in 1939, died here in 2009.

After graduating from high school, studied chemistry at the Free University of Berlin. Worked as a sales manager and managing director in the chemical industry.

Since the early 1960s, autodidactic involvement with fine arts, especially printmaking.

Contacts with protagonists of the first independent art and cultural scene in post-war West Berlin, especially the so-called Kreuzberg Bohemians, exhibition of his graphic works.
Turns to photography, first black-and-white portraits of fellow artists.

From the mid-60s publications in daily newspapers, magazines, books.

Since the end of the 1960s, work as a freelance photographer and journalist for Berlin daily newspapers and magazines, especially photographs of West Berlin (sub)culture and nightlife and portraits of celebrities and the public of the art and pop culture business of the FRG.

1967 -1982 photographic accompaniment of the Berlin Jazz Festival (Jazztage) in the Philharmonie, iconic portraits of Miles Davis, Duke Ellington and many other musicians*.

1968 Documentation of the anti-Vietnam War protests and counter-demonstrators in Berlin.

From the end of the 60s, over 4 decades, extensive photo journeys, especially to regions that were hardly accessible at the time, Yemen, Papua New Guinea and others.

1976-1982 production of 6 photo films with travel pictures, SFB.

80's-90's further photo trips, then individual media publications.

From the turn of the millennium individual and group exhibitions.

His works can be found in the collections of the Berlinische Galerie, the German Historical Museum and the Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz.