Obituary for Norbert Felzl

Norbert Felzl Actually, it is a shame that I am only writing this post now. Recently, two people wrote to me relatively promptly and asked whether I knew anything about the whereabouts of Norbert Felzl. Since I had not been in contact with him for a long time, I simply searched for him on the net. I immediately noticed that his homepage no longer existed. But there was hardly any other information about him. Until I discovered a small amount on his Facebook page that he had already died on 18 August 2014. What a shock.

My first contact with him was at the beginning of 2004, when I had just bought my first digital SLR camera, the Nikon D100, for a lot of money, and Photoshop was still more or less a closed book. It was a very exciting time, where snapping slowly turned into photography. When I was looking for workshops, I came across Norbert. I attended my first nude workshop with him. What a thrill that was! Complete strangers posing naked in front of me! I had to get used to this situation. And there I learned the basics of studio photography like lighting, low-key, high-key etc. and photographed intensively for a long day. Norbert was always very direct with his comments. I heard "That sucks" more than once that day :-) But it was precisely because this day was so intensive that it and Norbert are so well remembered.

In spring I attended an outdoor workshop with him near Arbesbach. But instead of warm spring weather in an idyllic landscape, it was bitterly cold and we even had freezing rain! For us it was still bearable, but the model showed real stamina. To this day, most people believe that the snow was added with Photoshop. But it wasn't! But when it got too heavy, we spontaneously went to the studio and did another photo session there. I count the photos from that time among the most beautiful in my portfolio.

In the years that followed, we only kept in touch via various photo sites such as PhotoSIG, photo.net, fotocommunity and later Facebook. But no matter where he uploaded his photos, they were always immediately recognisable as "a Felzl". I don't claim to have liked every photo, but he had an unmistakable style and I admire that a lot.

The quality of his photos can also be seen in the many medals and awards he won during his career. Yet his career began quite differently. Norbert was originally a musician and painter. It was only after he suffered a mass brain haemorrhage in 1988 that he began to take up photography in 1993 and digital post-processing in the 2000s.

Norbert was 71 years old. His death was hardly noticed by anyone. Not even by me. He donated his body to medicine and his ashes were buried on 29.09.2014 in the Vienna Central Cemetery, Gate 3, Group 26 Anatomy.

What became of his life's work I do not know. I hope that it has not been lost.

Finally, a few pages where you can still see some of his photos:

Bruno has written another beautiful obituary: http://blog.ufocomes.de/index.php?id=143

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