Thomas Billhardt, Peter Jacobs, Konrad Golz - Troy (CHILDREN PHOTOBOOK) - 1978

WONDERFUL, RARE, WIDELY UNKNOWN DDR/GDR CHILDREN BOOK -
with photos by well-known East-German photographer Thomas Billhardt (1937-2025).

Beautiful illustrations by Konrad Golz.
Text by well-known East German writer Peter Jacobs.

"In this book you meet Troy. He lives in Vietnam."

"Thomas Billhardt, born in Chemnitz, was a German photographer and publicist. He became particularly known for his photos from Vietnam, Palestine and Nicaragua. His best-known photo is one from the Vietnam War, in which a slim Vietnamese fighter takes away a physically superior US soldier."
(Wikipedia)

Weltkreis-Verlags-GmbH, Dortmund. 1978. First edition, first printing.

Hardcover. 225 x 245 mm. 32 pages. Photos: Thomas Billhardt. Text: Peter Jacobs. Illustrations: Konrad Golz. Text in German.

Condition:
Inside and outside well-preserved (better than usual), especially for a (normally heavily used) children photobook. Inside fresh with no marks and with no foxing. Pages smell like smoke, otherwise normal trace of use. Overall fine condition.

Great, scarce East-German children book with photos by Thomas Billhardt.

"Billhardt was trained as a photographer with his mother Maria Schmid-Billhardt from 1951 to 1954 and studied until 1957 at the technical school for applied arts in Magdeburg. As a factory photographer in lignite mining and the Brikettfabrik Grosskayna 1957–58, he qualified as a master photographer and was until 1959 a publishing photographer for the postcard publisher Bild und Heimat in Reichenbach in the Vogtland. From 1959 to 1963 he graduated from the University of Graphics and Book Art (HGB) in Leipzig with a degree in photography and photo design.
In 1962 he became a member of the Association of German Journalists and worked as a freelance photographer from 1963 to 1971. In 1968 he joined the SED. From 1972 to 1981 he was a group leader at the German advertising agency (DEWAG) Berlin and from 1982 to 1989 head of the Billhardt studio at the publishing house for agitation and visual aids. Billhardt has been a member of the German Association of Journalists since 1989 and from 1990 to 2001 he was a member of the German Society for Photography. Since 1990 he has also been a member of the Federal Freelance Photo Designer e.V.
Billhardt received the Erich Weinert Medal, the FDJ Art Prize, in 1965. In 1969 he received the GDR Art Prize and in 1987 the GDR National Prize. He has had numerous international photo exhibitions in London, Moscow, West Berlin, Beirut, Kiev, Krakow, Szczecin, Wroclaw, Hanoi, Santiago de Chile, Valparaiso, Florence, Salzburg, Paris, Prague, Wittlich and others. a. the UNICEF exhibition “Children of the World” in New York in 1988.
In April 2005 he was on the road for UNICEF Phillipines and from April 2008 to November 2008 he worked for UNICEF projects in Indonesia, Cambodia and China.
Billhardt sees himself as an artistic and political photographer. His archive until 1999 is owned by the Camera Work Gallery Berlin.
Thomas Billhardt is married and has two children. His son Steffen Billhardt also works internationally as a photographer. Thomas Billhardt lived in Italy and until 2008 in Berlin. Now he lives in Kleinmachnow near Berlin."
(Wikipedia)