Werner Haberkorn (March 12, 1907 – July 1997) was a German-Brazilian engineer, photographer, and businessman. Haberkorn arrived in Brazil as an immigrant in the 1930s, accompanied by his wife Luise. Together with his brother, Geraldo Haberkorn, he founded one of the most important postcard companies in the country, Fotolabor. It produced thousands of postcards throughout the 1940s and 1950s, many of which were widely circulated. Haberkorn body of work allows the visualization of the urban transformation of the city of São Paulo in the mid-20th century.
Werner Haberkorn died in 1997 at the age of 90. He left a legacy of aerial photographs, panoramic views, advertising stills, postcards, albums and photographic montages. A large body of his work is located at the Werner Haberkorn Collection at the Paulista Museum of the University of São Paulo. The remainder of his archive remains with his children.
Personal life
Werner Haberkorn was born on March 12, 1907, in Mislowitz (Mysłowice) in the Upper Silesia region. Upper Silesia belonged to Germany at the time of his birth, but today is part of Poland. His family was financially secure and established their businesses in Breslau, now Wrocław. Among Otto and Emmy Haberkorn's three children, Werner was the oldest. His father, Otto, worked in several commercial areas, two of which were hospitality and metallurgy, in addition to being the owner of a cigarette factory.
Haberkorn graduated in 1930 from Technische Hochschule de Breslau, now the Wrocław University of Science and Technology. He graduated with a degree as a machine engineer, specializing in aircraft mechanics. Before opening his own company, he worked for a period at Junkers, the German aircraft and aircraft engine manufacturer.
Haberkorn was a photography hobbyist, and was influenced mainly by his father, who shared the same passion. As an amateur photographer during the 1930s, he dedicated himself to recording his travels in Europe, and maintained numerous albums. These collections are currently held by the family and express Haberkorn's attention to the landscape, with a focus on urbanized spaces.
The photographer's first trip in Brazil was in 1936. He recorded daily life in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, as well as life in factories and streets and some landscape photographs. Germany, at that time, was under the Nazi regime, responsible for the persecution of people of Jewish descent. In this political context, one of the motivations of his trip to Brazil was to spread information about Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo as possible destinations for Jewish communities willing to leave German and its associated territories.
On the way to Brazil with the ship Jamaique, Werner passed through Lisbon, also photographing the route, until he reached Brazil. He toured Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, staying for a month and a half in Brazil. The entire itinerary of the trip was recorded by photographs that made up an album. These records, however, remained in Germany, even after his immigration to Brazil. After the trip, Haberkorn gave some lectures in Germany on Brazil to Jewish communities. He used his body of photography from his 1936 to explain conditions of daily life in Brazil.
Immigration
Haberkorn arrived in Brazil as an immigrant in 1937, a year after his initial visit to the country. He was the first of his family to settle in Brazil. He, together with his wife, settled in the city of São Paulo between June and July 1937. He and his wife lived in the region of Vale do Anhangabaú and Praça da República for a period. The city's entertainment sector, such as cinemas and museums, was concentrated in the two neighborhoods. Haberkorn did not work in photography at first; he was the commercial representative of a German manufacturer. Werner left his role as a spokesman for the company, as there was great difficulty in importing the machinery from Germany as a consequences of World War II.
Geraldo Haberkorn, his brother, attended the Bermpohl Institute in Germany and graduated in 1938. The name of the institute was a tribute to the creator of a color photographic system, Wilhelm Bermpohl. It was in this environment that Geraldo learned one of the techniques of color photography, which became known as the Bermpohl System. This system was based on trichromy; a camera was used to generate three negatives, allowing the reconstitution of colors at the time of the production of the positive copy. Geraldo moved to Brazil in 1939, bringing from Germany a copy of the Bermpohl machine and another one of photocopies. He additionally had a knowledge of photochromic procedures. Geraldo Haberkorn initially worked at Fotóptica but joined Werner in 1940. The two founded Fotolabor in the same year.
Haberkorn and his wife converted to Catholicism between 1939 and 1940. Luise's parents and brothers moved to Brazil in 1939. Werner's first daughter, Vera, was born in 1940. Three years later, the couple had a son, Ernesto. Although they helped in the family business while, the photographer's children did not follow their father's career.
Career in Brazil
There was a fine line between Haberkorn's personal life and the company, Fotolabor. Although he is not recognized as a prominent photographer in Brazil, his images are of great importance to study the urban transformations of the city of São Paulo throughout part of the 20th century. His company was also one of the most active publishers of postcards in São Paulo. According to his daughter, Vera Flieg, Werner did not see his profession as an art, but rather as an extremely technical endeavor.
Fotolabor
The Haberkorn brothers' company was founded in 1940. In addition to the photocopy brought from Germany by Geraldo, the beginning of Fotolabor was marked by the use of the coloring technique. The outbreak of World War II caused problems with the supply of raw materials needed for some of the equipment. The consequence of this was the end of the use of the Bermpohl photochromic system, which was also already being overtaken by new techniques and becoming commercially unfeasible. The company initially offered photocopying service and did works aimed at industrial photography, creating product catalogs and advertising for various brands.
Fotolabor was also impacted by restrictions and surveillance by Brazilian authorities during World War II. Orders placed by the company went through inspection authorities to ensure that they were not purchases of explosive materials, weapons, or ammunition. These restrictions affected not only Fotolabor, but also other photography professionals who had immigrated at the same time.
The company's location was favorable to the brothers' business, as it was close to the Post Office and in the region of the city where the greatest changes brought about by modernity were taking place. Werner also attributed part of Fotolabor's success to a photocopy machine. Only two establishments had this equipment in the region of the old center of São Paulo, and the company of the Haberkorn brothers was one of them. The photocopy machine provided initial income for the family business. This income, for example, was what allowed the use of the Bermpohl staining system.
It is possible to say that Haberkorn's photography was exclusively linked to commercial, rather than artistic, concerns. Even the name of the business refers to its commercial aspect, with "labor" as part of the company name. According to advertisements in telephone directories, Fotolabor offered photo-retouching, advertising, catalogs, clichés and photocopying services from 1944 to 1946. The company expanded the services in 1950, adding developing, color copies, and photography for industry and commerce.
Postcards
Fotolabor published postcards beginning in 1942; it was initially a source of supplementary income for the company. As industrial photography market was seasonal, Werner produced postcards to complement the company's income. The postcards, however, started to have an increasing circulation, making this one of its main activities for a period of time. The central theme of its postcards were cityscapes and changes in large urban centers such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Not all postcards had images made by Haberkorn. In the case of photographs of football teams and artists, for example, he only bought negatives to reproduce in postcard format.
One of Fotolabor's most active years was 1950, when the company became one of the largest producers of photographic postcards in São Paulo. The city's industrialization process happened simultaneously to Fotolabor's success, and continued throughout the 1950s. São Paulo was going through great transformations, undergoing great urban and cultural changes. As a result of this economic and social change, Fotolabor's photographs also began to receive new treatments and uses. Another point that interfered with the circulation of photos was the increase in consumption by the population.
The company increased to 40 professionals to accommodate this great production. They performed developing, processing, enlarging, and catalog assembly. Around 1955 they opened a Fotolabor branch, but there they offered the service of a third-party photography laboratory.
Despite all the success, the end of the era of Fotolabor's postcards was not long in coming. Photo processing machines were very expensive and color films were already becoming very popular. The Haberkorn brothers made an attempt to print the postcard with colors, but the quality of the chosen process was low and they were not successful. The interest of the consumer market was also changing, already being modified by the development of television and telephony. As a result, Fotolabor ceases to publish postcards in the late 1950s.
The final years of Fotolabor
Fotolabor operated in the advertising market until 1970s, working with both small agencies and larger companies, such as Colabor and Panam Propaganda. At the same time, the company entered the cinema exhibition market, offering the production of slides for television. The Haberkorn brothers' company operated for five decades, ending its activities in 1990. Werner was responsible for keeping Fotolabor running until the last year of its operation, since Geraldo's unit closed its activities in the 1980s. The company's facilities and equipment were gradually passed on to its employees.
Photography
Haberkorn's photography was essentially technical and his main objective was to document the changes brought about by modernity and the development of the city. In addition, his photomontages always followed a creative line. Most of the Fotolabor postcards were undated so that they could be resold in successive year. Werner initially worked in industrial photography, taking jobs linked to architectural projects and other commercial photography. Unlike other companies of the time, he is not interested in portrait photography, and always preferred technical photography.
Haberkorn preferred advertising-style work; it was a way to showcase his company's products. Photography served as a way to view objects in different ways and to discern details previously ignored. Another Haberkorn characteristic within the medium was sensing what his individual clients wanted, adapting his photographic techniques according to the project and client.
Because the market is relatively new, there was some complication in accessing equipment and supplies. The camera he had brought with him from Germany, for example, was not ideal for technical photography. For this reason, he changed his camera at Casa Kosmos and, over the years, changed equipment according to the need for new technology.