Corn Products Refining Company

Fred G. Korth was born in Guben, Germany in 1902 and went to school in Berlin. In 1926 he emigrated to Chicago, USA and learned photography. By the end of the 1920s he was a member of the Dearborn Camera Club and his photographs were exhibited in the 1930s in photo salons in the United States and abroad (especially Japan, Vienna and Madrid). In 1932 he opened his own studio in Chicago and worked until the mid 1960s for major American magazines such as 'National Geographic', 'Newsweek', 'Fortune', 'Holiday', 'Look' and 'Popular Mechanics'. 'Fortune' was the most important business publication of the 1930s and one of the most beautifully produced with Margaret Bourke-White as the chief photographer. 'Popular Mechanics' was read by 800,000 people between the Wars and exemplified the fascination America had for the machine age. He photographed the 1933 World's fair in Chicago and exhibited widely in photographic salons throughout the 1930s. Through picture agents he sold his photographs to many European countries. At the same time he worked as an industrial/advertising photographer for large American companies such as US Steel, Quaker Oats, Abbott Laboratories etc. In 1949 he self-published a book on Chicago and his photographs were published throughout his career in photographic year books in the US and Europe. Korth retired in 1965. His work is held in numerous collections in the United states including the J Paul Getty Museum, LA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and George Eastman House, Rochester, USA.