Background
Fritz (Max Kurt) Kempe was born in 1909 in Greifswald, Germany.
Photographer Photohistorian author collector
Fritz (Max Kurt) Kempe was born in 1909 in Greifswald, Germany.
Kempe learned photography from his father, Max Kempe. In 1938 Fritz Kempe passed his master's examination.
Since 1977 Kempe has been the honorary director of the Sammlung der Geschichte der Photographic in the Museum fur Kunst in Hamburg. From 1949 to 1974 he was director of the State
Regional Photo Office/Agency in Hamburg, and during the years 1946-68 he was editor of the Hamburger Allgemeine Zeitung. Prior to that he was press chief/supervisor of a Hamburg welfare Organization ( 1945-49); before that had his own studios - an advertising and industrial studio in Berlin (1938-39) and Photo-Kempe in Greifswald (1929-38).
The artist was involved with the films Laterna Magica Hamburgensis (1959) and Werkstatt des Friedens (1950).
"Everything that I have photographed, researched, collected and written, is determined by my historical interest in photography," he states.
Kempe belongs to a number of professional organizations, among them DGPh, GDL and Bundes Freischaffender Fotodesigner (BFF). He also has an Honoraire Excellence in the Fédération Internationale de l'Art Photographique (FLAP) and an honorary membership in the Photographic Historical Society of New York.