The photographer Konrad Rufus Müller – renowned for portraits of all federal chancellors – has passed away at the age of 83. His wife said on Sunday to the German Press Agency in Königswinter near Bonn, that he succumbed to a long and severe illness on Saturday evening. This was reported earlier by the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.
His black and white photos of the chancellors – from Konrad Adenauer (CDU) to Olaf Scholz (SPD) – have an intense visual language, Müller refrained from using spotlights, tripods and other accessories. According to his own statements, he always used only two cameras, and he steered clear from digital photography.
Müller’s passing marks the departure of a significant German contemporary witness
Müller was present on countless trips and appearances of the chancellors, becoming a contemporary witness, such as when Helmut Kohl met the Soviet state leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Bonn in the summer of 1989 or when the CDU politician visited the French President François Mitterrand after the fall of the Berlin Wall, to convince him of the necessity of German unity.
Müller had a particularly good relationship with the SPD chancellor Willy Brandt, whom he referred to as “my hero”. In addition to the chancellor pictures, as an independent photographer, Müller realized numerous photography projects, his images are a journey back to the 60s.
