Uwe Ommer

Artistic journey

Ommer’s passion for photography started during his teen years. In 1962, at 19 years old, he was awarded the 1st Deutscher Jugend Photo Preis (German Youth Photo Prize) in Cologne. The next year, he decided to go to Paris temporarily to learn French, but he will never leave.
He was the assistant of the advertising photographer Jean-Pierre Ronzel. His talent is quickly noticed in the fashion and advertising industry. He worked for brands like Charles Jourdan, Emanuel Ungaro, Kodak et occasionally collaborated with Studio Harcourt.
During the 70’s, and for approximately two decades, he photographed black women to show the world their unique beauty . He published two books, "Black Ladies" (1986) and "Black Ladies II" (1995), books entirely devoted to the canons of beauty of the black woman.
At the end of the 90’s, he changed his repertoire, and decided to travel all around the world to interview and photograph families. In 2000, he came back with 1251 pictures and a dream accomplished, showing that despite the cultural, geographical, linguistic and religious differences, family is a universal institution. From this ambitious project, many exhibitions and books came out.


2013: CRAF (Centro di Ricerca e Archiviazione della Fotografia) – International Prize of Photography
2003: Book and Youth Press Fair of Montreuil – Youth Press Prize for the book "Familles du monde entier"
2003: FIG (International Festival of Geography) - Ptolémée Prize for the book "Familles du monde entier"
2002: Royal Photographic Society – Honorary Fellowship for the impact of his lifetime work
1962: Photokina - 1st prize for German Youth Photo


To see his exhibition list, please click on the link: https://urls.fr/sRg7mZ


Photos credits © Uwe Ommer