Lothar Huber

Lothar Huber was born in 1936 in Offenburg/Baden, Germany, and attended the “Volkschule” until the age of 10, then the “Realschule” until he was 16. During these years his passion for photography took shape, resulting in him undertaking a four-year apprenticeship in a photographic studio in Offenburg/Baden, which incorporated all aspects of industrial, press and portrait photography. Lothar then worked at Sudewestfunk (Southwest Radio) in Baden Baden, under Joachim Berendt, an author, filmmaker and record producer of jazz and American folk music. Lothar’s photos from this period appeared in books, calendars and exhibitions. Some continue to appear in publications to this day. Amongst Lothar’s unique photos from this period are portraits of Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, The Modern Jazz Quartet and many others.

  In 1959 Lothar studied colour photography in Cologne, Germany, becoming highly-skilled in this side of the photographic industry. Lothar arrived in Australia in March 1960, with 500 rolls of Kodak Ektachrome

film in 120 format. He travelled extensively with a friend throughout the country, capturing the beauty of the interior. However, he soon found that nobody in Australia was able to process his exposed films, so they were sent to Studio 13 in Zurich, Switzerland, for processing. After his friend tragically died in a car crash in Perth, Lothar arrived in Melbourne on his own, with little English and no local connections.

Luckily, he came across an opportunity to help set up one of the first commercial colour laboratories in Australia: Vericolor, Melbourne. As Production Manager, Lothar oversaw the professional operation of the business. He also met Joy Thomson, and the couple were married in February 1967.

In 1970 Lothar and Joy opened one of Australia’s first professional labs specifically catering to wedding, portrait and commercial photographers. Bond quickly established a reputation for quality in all aspects of film processing and photo finishing. Among the many commercial customers was Wolfgang Sievers,

and he and Lothar became close friends. Prior to his death in 2007, Wolfgang gifted a number of his photos to Lothar.

Lothar and Joy took their family on many holidays, in Australia and overseas, and in later years the couple enjoyed many adventurous holidays to exotic lands like Easter Island, the Arctic and Antarctic, Iceland, Tahiti, Cuba and many other places. Lothar always had a camera on-hand and captured his experiences wherever he went, initially on film and later as digital files. His great passion for photography is evident in the enormous size of his collection of photographs. Fortunately, he owned a professional photographic lab, so printing his work was never a problem.

Lothar sold Bond Colour and retired in 2013, at the age of 77. Now in their later years, Lothar and Joy are downsizing their lives, including selling most of his photograph collection.

Their family has ties with McDonalds family restaurants, so they decided to share some of the good from the sale of the photographs. They are donating 10% of all sales to Ronald McDonald House Charities Vic/Tas, which gives seriously ill children the best gift of all: their families.

Lothar’s photographic print collection includes thousands of his own photos, from his portraits of jazz performers in the 1950s to his recent landscapes from across the globe. It also includes many highly sought-after photos from Wolfgang Sievers, NASA and others.