Born August 10, 1955 in Vienna.
Member of the Vienna Boys’ Choir from 1965 to 1969. Toured the world, sang Soprano I in Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Mass in B Minor” under Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Hans Gillesberger in 1967. Simak discovered his passion for photography in Japan during his last tour with the choir in 1969.
Studied trumpet under Helmut Wobisch at the University of Music and Performing Arts (now mdw) from 1969 to 1973.
The early 1980s saw Simak venture into the new wave music scene as a trumpeter, playing in the Vienna band Standart Oil (LP “Nagasaki”, 1982) and guesting with Chuzpe, Der Wilde Pinguin, Die Fidelen Synkopen, Ikebong Plaisir and Alexander Czjzek. Active as a DJ in Viennese nightclubs (U4 and Ring).
The music, the real queen of the arts, of Miles Davis, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, George Clinton, Gustav Mahler, John Coltrane and Johann Sebastian Bach has always been an important source of inspiration for Simak, both artistically and in life.
Fritz Simak practices kyudo, the Japanese martial art of archery (2nd dan) as Diethard Leopold’s (6th dan, honorific kyoshi) first student in Austria.
The photographer’s first 35mm single lens reflex camera, a Pentax Spotmatic II, was a birthday present from his parents, Maria and Fritz Simak, in 1971.
Major influences included the Vienna gallery Die Brücke, founded in 1970 by Anna Auer and Werner Mraz. It was the first commercial gallery on the European continent to show the work of prominent international photographers and had a profound impact on Simak both as a photographer and as a collector. It was there that he acquired his first photographs by Franco Fontana and Arnulf Rainer. Other key influences included the Swiss magazine “Camera” (then edited by photographer Allan Porter).
Simak found the lively exchange of ideas with the Viennese gallerist and friend Johannes Faber, who exhibited the photographer’s work in his gallery and at international fairs, extremely productive and inspiring.
Supported by photographer Ernst Haas: Simak studied in New York in 1985/86 and worked at the Ernst Haas Studio in New York in 1987. There he helped to organise the estate of the photographer, who died in September 1986. It was also in New York that he met photographer Todd Weinstein, Haas’s assistant, who later became an invaluable source for Simak’s dissertation research on Ernst Haas.
Worked as a darkroom assistant for Todd Watts, producing prints of works by Berenice Abbott, Lynne Cohen and Suzanne Opton. Todd Watts is a renowned artist and “fine printer” known for his extremely high-quality work. Watts also printed the large-scale photographs for the series “Schönbrunn Mauer bei Nacht” (Schönbrunn wall by night, 2010).
Studied art history at the University of Vienna and in 1990 completed his dissertation “Der Photograph Ernst Haas 1921–1986” (The photographer Ernst Haas 1921–1986) under Hermann Fillitz, professor at the Department of Art History and former director of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna.
Commissioned work for architects, museums and art catalogues, with clients including the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, the Leopold Museum, the Hofmobiliendepot (now Furniture Museum Vienna), the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, the “Wien Süd” housing cooperative, Palais Liechtenstein, NöART – Niederösterreich Gesellschaft für Kunst und Kultur, and the Schönbrunn Group.
Simak was awarded the Lower Austrian Recognition Prize in 2014 and a Gold Decoration of Honour from the State of Lower Austria in 2016.
Work by Simak is held in private collections (in Vienna, Salzburg, Berlin, Munich, New York, Portland/USA) as well as in public ones: the Albertina Museum; the photography collection of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport; the Heimatraum of the municipality of Niederleis, Lower Austria; the State Collections of Lower Austria, St. Pölten; the mumok Collection, Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien; the Austrian Photography Gallery, Museum der Moderne Salzburg; the Austrian Postal Savings Bank Collection, Vienna; and the Collection of the City of Vienna.