Jerry Berndt (photographer) explained

Jerry Berndt (1943–2013) was an American photojournalist and documentary photographer.^{[1] [2] [3]} He made work about the Combat Zone, Boston in the late 1960s.^[2] Berndt has posthumously had solo exhibitions at the Centre national des arts plastiques in Paris^[4] and the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg.^[5] His work is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.^[6]

Life and work

Berndt was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA into a working-class family.^[1]

He was based in Boston, Massachusetts on and off for three decades, beginning in the late 1960s.^[2] He was a self-taught photographer who made work about an area of Boston known as the Combat Zone (1967–1970);^[7] a homeless shelter on Boston's Long Island in the early 1980s; the living conditions of people in San Salvador (1984), and Haiti at a time of civil unrest (1986–1991); the First Nagorno-Karabakh War in Armenia (1993–1994); and orphans from the Rwandan genocide (2003–2004).^{[2] [5]}

Berndt moved to Paris in the late 1990s. He was found dead in his Paris studio on July 10, 2013, probably from a heart attack, aged 69.^[2]

Publications

Books by Berndt

• Missing Persons the Homeless. Boston: Many Voices, 1986.
• Armenia: Portraits of Survival. Self-published, 1994. With an introduction by Donald E. Miller.
• Insight. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2008. Edited by Felix Hoffman and Maik Schlüter. .
• Beautiful America: Protest, Politics and Everyday Culture in the USA, 1968–1980. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2018. Edited by Maik Schlüter. .

Books with contributions by Berndt

• Armenia: Portraits of Survival and Hope. University of California Press, 2003. Text by Donald E. Miller and Lorna Touryan Miller, photographs by Berndt. .
• Orphans of the Rwanda Genocide. Text by Donald E. Miller and Lorna Touryan Miller and photographs by Berndt. Pasadena, CA: New Vision, 2004.^[8]

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

• Jerry Berndt: Beautiful America, Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris, 2016^[4]
• Beautiful America, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany, 2020–21^[5]

Group exhibitions

• Photography: Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1987^[9]

Collections

• Museum of Modern Art, New York: 1 print (as of 3 January 2022)^[6]

External links

• • "Audio In|Sight: Photographer, Jerry Berndt shares how photography changed his life" (audio)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Nils. Grossien. 2022-01-03. Vita. Jerry Berndt.
2. Web site: Bryan. Marquard. Jerry Berndt, 69; photographer captured images of dispossessed. The Boston Globe.
3. News: William. Zimmer. 2022-01-03. ART;The Artist, in Personal as Well as Commercial Mode. The New York Times. 21 April 1996. 0362-4331.
4. Web site: 2022-01-06. Jerry Berndt. www.cnap.fr.
5. Web site: 2022-01-03. What the FBI wanted with photographer Jerry Berndt. Deutsche Welle.
6. Web site: 2022-01-03. Jerry Berndt. The Museum of Modern Art.
7. Web site: 2022-01-03. Jerry Berndt, 'The Combat Zone'. Time Out Paris. 22 July 2015 .
8. Web site: Out of Rwanda's horror, abiding bonds of love emerge. 8 April 2007. Los Angeles Times.
9. Web site: 2022-01-03. Photography: Recent Acquisitions. The Museum of Modern Art.