Michael Friedel to meet Maldivian Photographers
Photo: Michael Friedel, image courtesy http://www.photo-friedel.de/
The German photographer Michael Friedel (http://www.photo-friedel.de/) will be at the National Art Gallery at 1930hrs on Tuesday 6th November 2006 to talk about his work to an invited audience of NAG members, photographers and artists.
Michael Friedel is most popular in the Maldives for his postcards and posters depicting magical views of the archipelago including his pioneering aerial views, breathtaking scenic panoramas and vivid underwater images. Friedel’s first trip to the Maldives was in 1973. While on an assignment in Nepal he was contacted by the German tour operator Neckermann to visit the Maldives to take some photographs. At the time Friedel’s assistance was also sought by Lufthansa as a specialist in discovering new holiday destinations. Travel to Maldives by air at the time was only via Colombo, Sri Lanka. Even tourists who wanted to visit the country had a waiting period of 3 to 4 months due to unavailability of seats on planes flying to the region.
Although Friedel’s first visit to the country did not yield much results to show for, he was back in the same year with a commission from the German lifestyle magazine Stern to do an extensive photo shoot of the Maldives. At the time Stern had a circulation of two million copies in Germany alone and was the leading magazine of the country. Friedel took 2 weeks to research locations and 3 weeks to complete the shoot. The resulting feature in Stern proved highly popular in Germany and suddenly large numbers of German tourists began traveling to the Maldives as tourists. The feature in Stern was followed by a series of postcards based on photos Friedel took in 1974. The first set of these were also later produced as a Maldivian stamp set. The post cards became such a ‘hit’ among tourists and souvenir sellers in the resorts and inhabited islands that Friedel and his family used to barter them with other items in shops. Friedel will be showing a series of selected images from his extensive portfolio in his presentation at the NAG on 6th November 2007.
Source: NAG