Jochen Blume
Prof. Jochen Blume (*28 February 1925 - † 4 April 2018)
Blume worked as a press photographer since 1948. He began his career at the German Press Agency (dpa), then moved to Axel Springer Publishing, where he worked for Bild newspaper and Kristall magazine, among others. He later joined Stern magazine and then became self-employed.
In 1973, he was appointed Professor of Photography at the Hamburg Academy of Art and Design. For decades, he also taught at the Academy of Journalism.
Blume has written several photo and autobiographical books.
When John F. Kennedy declared "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berliner) in front of Schöneberg City Hall in Berlin on June 26, 1963, the young US president changed the lives of millions of people with a single sentence. And Jochen Blume pressed the shutter button.
The result: an image that went around the world. A heartbeat of contemporary history. Captured in black and white, a goosebump-inducing moment preserved for eternity in a single photo.
And Blume had quite a few of those in his 50-year career. He was there when Willy Brandt visited Checkpoint Charlie on August 13, 1961, or when students René Leudesdorff and Georg von Hatzfeld raised the German flag on Heligoland in 1950, ultimately returning their island to its inhabitants.
In a non-digital world, Blume was considered one of the best of his generation of photojournalists whose images moved and changed the world.
But Blume wasn't just present at the moments when world politics were being shaped – he also photographed global stars like Marlene Dietrich, Sophia Loren, Alain Delon, and Romy Schneider. They trusted him, allowing him a closeness that few others have ever achieved. Blume captured intimate moments, unvarnished truths, and the faces of characters with his camera – and they still impress and move viewers today.