Fred Fehl

Fred Fehl is considered the father of what he termed “performance photography.” In his obituary in The New York Times, the paper labeled him as the photographer “who helped revolutionize theatrical photography.”

Fehl was born in Vienna in 1906, immigrated to the United States in 1939 via London, and settled in Manhattan.

Between 1940 and 1985, he captured more than 1,000 theater productions. He was the permanent photographer of the American Ballet Theatre, the New York City Opera, and the New York City Ballet. In 1976, he exhibited 450 selected photos from his catalogue at Lincoln Center’s Library for the Performing Arts. His work was published in a large number of prestigious publications and newspapers, and in hundreds of books.

According to a more recent piece in The New York Times, “before Fehl, the usual Broadway picture was posed,” the theater scholar William Stott wrote in the introduction to a 1978 collection of Fehl’s photographs. “After him, the usual picture was done his way.”

Fred Fehl, who was married to Margaret Kopekin, a pianist and music teacher, passed away in New York City in 1995.