Historical and Artistic Photographs (1940s – 1960s) by Yohannes Haile is organised in collaboration between Unity Park Ethiopia.
Yohannes Haile (1927-2016) was born and raised in Jegol, Harar. Gash Johannes was only eleven when he was first introduced to a camera in the 1930s and decided to be a photographer. He was one of the first Ethiopians to study photography in the early 1950s at the NY School of Modern Photography and the University of Southern California (USC) in the United States. In the 1950s and 60s he became the official photographer of Emperor Haile Selassie, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) today's African Union (AU) and the United Nations. In 1962, he was commissioned by the German Government through their Embassy in Addis Ababa to photographically document the industrial development of Germany. He traveled in many parts of Germany including East Berlin. In 1964, the documentary photographs of this journey were exhibited in Addis Ababa. In 2016 and 2017 Meskerem Assegued curated a new selection of the German photographs at ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) galleries in Berlin and Stuttgart. From 1960s to 2006, Johannes Haile worked in his studio known as National Studio located on the building of Ethiopian electric company in Piazza, Addis Ababa. In 2016 right before the opening of the exhibition, Johannes Haile passed away. His exhibition was attended by many people including his family members.
This exhibition aims to reintroduce Yohannes Haile and his timeless photographs to those who knew him and to those who never heard his name.
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