Herbert List
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Herbert List (October 7, 1903–April 4, 1975) was a German photographer who worked for magazines including Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Life and was associated with Magnum Photos. His austere, classically-posed black-and-white compositions, particularly of male nudes, taken in Italy and Greece have been highly formative for modern photography, with contemporary fashion photographers like Herb Ritts being clearly influenced by List's style. He is also noted for his erotic street photography.
Contents |
Career
List was born to a prosperous merchant family in Hamburg and attended the Johanneum Gymnasium. While studying literature at the University of Heidelberg, he apprenticed with his family coffee company. He continued to work at the company and travel from 1924-1928 to places including Brazil, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. During this time List began taking photographs. In 1930 he met photographer Andreas Feininger who introduced List to the Rolleiflex camera. He began taking portraits of friends and shooting still lifes, influenced by the Bauhaus and surrealist movements. He used male models, draped fabric, and masks along with double-exposures.He has explained that his photos were "composed visions where [my] arrangements try to capture the magical essence inhabiting and animating the world of appearances.”
In 1936 List left Germany and took up photography as a profession, working in Paris and London. He met George Hoyningen-Huene who referred him to Harper's Bazaar magazine, but List was unsatisfied with fashion photography. He turned back to still life imagery, producing images in a style he called "fotografia metafisica" which pictured dream states and fantastic imagery using mirrors and double-exposures.
From 1937 to 1939 List traveled to Greece and photographed temples, ruins, sculptures, and landscapes, leading to many magazine and book publications. In 1941 he was forced to return to Germany, but because of his Jewish descent he was disallowed from publishing or working professionally. In 1944 he was drafted into the military, despite being Jewish and gay. He served in Norway as a map designer. A trip to Paris allowed him to take portraits of Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Christian Berard, Georges Braque, Jean Arp, Joan Miró, and others. After the war, he documented the ruins of Munich and became art editor for Heute magazine. In 1951 List met Robert Capa who invited him to join Magnum Photos. For the next decade he worked heavily in Italy. During this time he also started using a 35 mm film camera and a telephoto lens. He was influenced by his Magnum colleague Henri Cartier-Bresson as well as the Italian neorealism film movement. In the 1950s he also shot portraits of Marino Marini, Paul Bowles, W. H. Auden, and Marlene Dietrich in 1960.
List gave up photography in the early 1960s. He died in Munich on April 4, 1975.
Books by Herbert List
- Licht über Hellas (Aufnahmen aus Griechenland zw. 1937-1941), München 1953
- Rom, München 1955
- Caribia, Hamburg 1958
- Napoli, Gütersloh 1962
- Bildwerke aus Nigeria, München 1963
- Martin Mayer, München 1972
- Junge Manner Twin Palms Publishers, 1988 ISBN 978-0944092033
- Italy Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1995 ISBN 978-0500541968
Compilations
- US Camera Year-Book, New York 1957
- DU, Zürich 1973
- Portraits, Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg 1977
- Photographs 1930-1970, Thames and Hudson, London und Rizzoli, New York 1980
- Fotografien 1930-1970; 1980 neu herausgegeben von Max Scheler unter dem Titel: Fotografie Metafisica
- Herbert List. I grandi fotografi. Milano 1982, deutsch München 1983
- Herbert List, Memento 1945. Münchner Ruinen. Fotomusem München. Schirmer/Mosel, München 1995 ISBN 3-88814-763-8
- Max Scheler und Matthias Harder (Hrsg.). Herbert List. Die Monographie. Mit einem Geleitwort von Bruce Weber und Texten von Herbert List u.a. Schirmer/Mosel, München 2000, ISBN 3-88814-533-3
Bibliography
- Boris von Brauchitsch: Das Magische im Vorübergehen. Herbert List und die Fotografie. Lit, Münster und Hamburg 1992 ISBN 3-89473-392-6
- Emanuel Eckardt: Herbert List. Ellert und Richter, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-8319-0131-7
