Heinz von Perckhammer was born at the 3rd of March 1895 in Meran/Merano as son of Hildebrand von Perckhammer and Johanna Fiala. His father ran a photographic studio in the uprising spa and tourism Area – Meran/Merano. He got two sons from his first marriage and another son, as well as a daughter from his second marriage. As he dies unexpectedly, at young age, in December of 1911, his wife gives the photographic studio to another photographer.
It appears as Heinz (Heinrich) initially wanted to go to Munich, to attend the art academy – and didn’t plan on working towards a career as a photographer. But then, in 1913, he joins the military as sailor. He gets on the military cruiser „S.M.S.Kaiserin Elisabeth“ from Pola eastward, as part of the „K. und K. Matrosenkorps 7. Kompagnie“-military-company. August 1914, the Austrian cruiser joins the battle on German site to fight against Japanese forces but gets sunk by the own crew at the end. Heinz v.P. was left behind in Tientsin/Tianjin and Beijing with a small part of the initial crew, still at service for the Austrian forces (“Marine-Detachement“) and got detained in a Chinese Camp, from 1917 to 1919.
This is the phase in which his photographic career starts. He stays behind as co-worker or co-partner of the Kodak‑Shops in Tientsin/Tianjin and Peitaiho/Beidaihe and doesn’t come back from China to Europe until 1927.
In Berlin his photographic work encounters great resonance and within short succession he publishes three Books about China. He opens his own studio – the „Photo-Art-Studio“ – at the “Kurfürstendamm” and sells photographs to the press about social live and motor sports, as well as artistic nude pictures.
In time of war he practices as reporter of war-scenes. At the end of the war he is just able to save a fraction of his own negative shots and photographs – so he starts over at his former home. He opens a photographic studio at “Theaterplatz“ in Meran/Merano and publishes his shots mostly in form of picture postcards.
On the 3rd of February 1965 Heinz von Perckhammer dies in Meran/Merano, shortly before his 70th birthday, of a heart attack.
2162 of his negative shots from his stay in China (1914 – 1927) were preserved and are still in family possession. Most of them are in the format of 7×12 cm or 4,5×6 cm. In addition, there are early photographs of Berlin from the time around 1929/30 (approximately 1.000 pcs) in large format. In the timespan from 1932 to 1942 he utilized the small to media sized format Leica (approximately 2.000 pcs) and Rolleiflex (most relevant for studio photography, approximately 17.000 pcs). After the war Perckhammer almost exclusively photographed in the format of colour slides with topics around or from South‑Tirol (approximately 3.500 pcs). In addition, there are 10 unlabelled photo albums, consisting of portraits and photos of families, weddings etc. – the day to day work of a photographic studio.