Art Gallery of Newfoundland and
Labrador (AGNL)
Shaped by the Sea
Permanent Collections
Manfred Buchheit is the living definition of the term "artist-photographer." Born in Metz, Alsace, France, in 1943, Buchheit emigrated to Canada with his family in 1950 to the Toronto, Ontario, area. He grew up there and went on to study at the Ontario College of Art (OCA). Here he began his career as a medical graphic artist.
After spending three years in Detroit, Michigan, USA, he moved to St. John's in 1971, because friends had told him about Newfoundland's natural beauty and access to unspoiled wilderness. Buchheit settled there and began to make the transformation from working as a graphic artist to life as a professional artist-photographer. During this time he worked in a variety of jobs, from display artist, silk-screen stencil cutter, floating offset press operator, commercial artist, freelance photographer to bartender.
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Manjo Simon's Cow, Lucy—Cape St. George 1987 Hand Coloured Silverprint Photograph 46.5 x 31.2 cm 
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In 1977, Buchheit was awarded a Canada Council for the Arts grant as an Artist-in-the-Community. He went on to teach art and photography with Memorial University Extension Service. Beginning in the early 1980s, he began to receive recognition as an artist-photographer, winning first prize in 1984 in the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters competition. He was regularly represented in that competition until 1992. In 1990, he received another grant from the Canada Council, and in 1996 received a grant from the Year of the Arts '97—Cabot Quincentenary Committee to work on his Homage to Holloway series. Also in 1996, the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador organized a 25-year retrospective of his work.
Buchheit's photography, for which he is best known, has undergone several thematic changes in the last 10 years. He gained recognition for his images of urban settings, largely the streets of historic downtown St. John's. Then he began to deal more exclusively with the natural subject matter outside the city, particularly when he moved to Holyrood in Conception Bay. Buchheit is known for his experimentation with the pinhole camera, using this very simple camera to create stunning images. He also works in graphite pencil and watercolours.
Most recently, Buchheit spent three years developing and researching the Homage to Holloway series. He printed glass plate negatives of areas that were photographed by Robert Holloway almost 100 years ago. He then photographed the sites as they are now and presented both photographs of each place together in a single frame.
