Catherine DeLattre & Fred Herzog

Osmos is pleased to present Chromazone, an exhibition featuring photographs by Catherine DeLattre and Fred Herzog.

Catherine DeLattre (b. 1949) and Fred Herzog (1930-2019) were both unafraid to welcome the possibilities of color at a time when most other photographers shot in black and white. DeLattre, born and raised in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, a small town near the heavily industrial area of Pittsburgh, studied photography in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when this typically meant shooting and developing in black and white, but DeLattre set out with her TLR Mamiya medium-format camera and Kodak color negative film. Similarly, Herzog, who was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1930, and immigrated to Vancouver, Canada, in 1953, almost exclusively worked with Kodachrome slide film throughout his career. Though relatively unknown during his lifetime, Herzog’s color photography from the 1950s and 60s prefigures the work of the “New Color” photographers of the 1970s.

Both artists released prints of their works decades later, only after digital inkjet technology allowed for a richness and veracity of color that previous methods could not achieve. Consequently, much of the work DeLattre shot in the 1970s and 1980s only got printed recently by the artist when she acquired a digital printer, and Herzog only began printing his work in the past decade, when technology allow him to make archival pigment prints that match the exceptional color and intensity of the Kodachrome slide. For both artists, autonomy and unstructured time are significant factors for how their works came to be.

In addition to an eye for color, DeLattre and Herzog's work also possesses a keen sense of place. Though most well known for her series Shoppers—street photographs of women on New York City's Upper West Side made between 1979 and 1980—DeLattre’s recent landscape photographs from Wayne County, North East Pennsylvania are, in her own words, "not the postcard version of America but a quieter, lonelier one. The rural stretch of land between towns, the space and wide openness, the houses, all are very American but in solitude." Herzog likewise directed his attention to places beyond the "postcard version" of his context. Uninterested by the coastal views and verdant mountains that captivated other Vancouver photographers, Herzog turned his camera towards the working-class neighborhoods of Chinatown, Strathcona, and East Hastings. It was in these neighborhoods where the interchange of activities between merchants and patrons, colorful signage and window displays, and general bustle of street life not only provided an engaging environment for Herzog to photograph but also drove his commitment to using color film to capture what he viewed as the creativity and generosity of the street.

Catherine DeLattre (b. 1949) lives and works in New York City and Pennsylvania. DeLattre has had solo exhibitions at Osmos Station, Stamford NY (2025); Abraham et Wolff Gallery, Paris (2024); and Trout Brook Studios, Hanckock, NY (2023). Her work is included in the collection of the Everson Museum of Art, the collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody, the Florida Museum of Fine Arts, and others. Her photographs were shown with Osmos at Paris Photo 2025, where her work was named by the New York Times as one of the "5 Treasures of Photography" at the fair.

Fred Herzog (1930-2019) was a pioneering Canadian photographer known for his innovative use of color in street photography from the 1950s onward. Working as a medical photographer by day, Herzog dedicated his evenings and weekends to walking the streets and documenting the city and its residents with an affectionate eye. He exhibited his work both in Canada and internationally, including the exhibitions Fred Herzog: Photographs, C/O Berlin, Germany (2010), Fred Herzog: A Retrospective, Equinox Gallery, Vancouver (2012), Eyes Wide Open! 100 Years of Leica Photography, Haus der Photographie, Hamburg, Germany (2015) Photography in Canada, 1960-2000, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2017), and many others.