“ I consider Ferenc Berko to be one of the significant photographers of our profession.”
– André Kertész
"Berko is one of the leading names in color photography – a field which he helped to pioneer in 1948/49 when other professionals were still skeptical about the advantages of color…Berko’s early abstractions of nature strike the beholder as a novel experience.”
– Helmut Gernsheim
| 1916 | Born in Nagyvárad, Hungary |
| 1921 – 1932 | Berlin and Frankfurt, Germany Passion for photography begins. Inspired by the Bauhaus movement. |
| 1932 – 1938 | London, England and Paris, France. Berko finishes studies in philosophy. Dedicates himself exclusively to photography – reportage, abstraction, and the female form. He makes short documentary films. |
| 1938 - 1947 | Bombay, India. Documentary film director for the British Army. With attention to abstraction and to humanism, Berko captures street scenes and unusual details from Madras to Kashmir to Sikkim. Opens Berko Studio with focus on portraiture. Photographs leaders of the Indian Independence movement and government. |
| 1947 – 1949 | Chicago, Illinois. Professor of photography at the Chicago Institute of Art. Pioneers new vision through color photography – approaches urban and rural landscapes with novel attention to shapes, patterns, reflections, and silhouettes. |
| 1949 – 2000 | Aspen, Colorado. Official photographer for the Aspen Institute and the Aspen Music Festival. Extensive world travels refine Berko’s abstract compositions and ability to discover the natural beauty of both familiar and foreign settings through both black and white and color photography. |
| 2000 | Deceased in Aspen, Colorado. |
“You opened up a whole new world for me.” – Eliot Porter, 1951, in praising Berko’s color photographs