Hans Georg Berger

Hans Georg Berger is a German-born photographer and writer, who lives in Berlin, Elba and in Laos.

Biography

Born in 1951 in Trier, Germany, he went on to collaborate closely in the 1970s with the artist Joseph Beuys, who was a key influence on his concept of photography, and thereafter with the French writer Hervé Guibert (1955–91).

He was director of the International Munich Theatre Festival from 1977 to 1983 and co-founder with Hans Werner Henze of the Munich Biennale[1] music theatre festival. He also helped to set up AIDA, an international human rights watch group for artists.

Since the late 1980s Berger has become increasingly involved in a series of long-term photography projects looking at dimensions of the world religions. This has led to extensive travel to Iran and through South-East Asia, where his exhibition the Floating Buddha has been installed permanently at the Buddhist Archive of Photography, at Vat Khili, in Luang Prabang/Laos]].

On the Island of Elba (Italy) he has been involved since 1977 with the restoration of the Eremo di Santa Caterina, a former Franciscan friary, as an arts centre, and the creation of a botanical garden dedicated to the spontaneous flora of the Tuscan Arcipelago in 1994. At the monastery's medieval "Hortus Conclusus" he created a garden of ancient roses that over the years attracted a great number of artists, writers and gardeners.

Publications

• Hans Georg Berger, 2000: Het Bun Dai Bun – Laos, Sacred Rituals of Luang Prabang ISBN 1-903391-02-4

• Hans Georg Berger, 2009: The Floating Buddha. The Revival of Vipassana Meditation in Laos ISBN 978-0-9844483-1-9

• The Learning Photographer. Scholarly texts on Hans Georg Berger's art work in Laos and Iran (2009) ISBN 978-0-9844483-0-2

• Hans Georg Berger and Herve Guibert, 1992: Dialogue d'Images

• Hans Georg Berger and Herve Guibert, 1992: Lettres d'Egypte

• Hans Georg Berger and Hugh Honour, 1998: Carnets Khmers

• Hans Georg Berger and Khamvone Boulyaphone, 2010: Treasures of the Buddhist Archive of Photography, Luang Prabang/Laos

• Hans Georg Berger,2014: Guibert en Egypte

• Hans Georg Berger, 2015: My Sacred Laos, Serindia/Chicago

External links

• Yann Amstuzt: Photographer
• Hans Georg Berger: own website
• books on Lao Buddhism by Hans Georg Berger
• a festival at the Eremo di Santa Caterina, Elba/Italy