Herbert List
Encyclopedia
Herbert List 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.
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 portrait
s of friends and shooting still life
s, 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.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
photographer who worked for magazines including Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, Harper's Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
, and Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
and was associated with Magnum Photos
Magnum Photos
Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices located in New York, Paris, London and Tokyo...
. His austere, classically-posed black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
compositions, particularly of male nudes, taken in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
have been highly formative for modern photography, with contemporary fashion photographers like Herb Ritts
Herb Ritts
Herbert "Herb" Ritts was an American fashion photographer who concentrated on black-and-white photography and portraits, often in the style of classical Greek sculpture.-Early life and career:...
being clearly influenced by List's style. He is also noted for his erotic street photography.
Career
List was born to a prosperous merchant family in HamburgHamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
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
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, and Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
. During this time List began taking photographs. In 1930 he met photographer Andreas Feininger
Andreas Feininger
Andreas Bernhard Lyonel Feininger was a German American photographer, and writer on photographic technique, noted for his dynamic black-and-white scenes of Manhattan and studies of the structure of natural objects....
who introduced List to the Rolleiflex
Rolleiflex
Rolleiflex is the name of a long-running and diverse line of high-end cameras originally made by the German company Franke & Heidecke, and later Rollei-Werk. The "Rolleiflex" name is most commonly used to refer to Rollei's premier line of medium format twin lens reflex cameras...
camera. He began taking portrait
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
s of friends and shooting still life
Still life
A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made...
s, influenced by the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
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
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He met George Hoyningen-Huene
George Hoyningen-Huene
Baron George Hoyningen-Huene was a seminal fashion photographer of the 1920s and 1930s. He was born in Russia to Baltic German and American parents and spent his working life in France, England and the United States.-Europe:...
who referred him to Harper's Bazaar magazine, but List was unsatisfied with fashion photography
Fashion photography
Fashion photography is a genre of photography devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items. Fashion photography is most often conducted for advertisements or fashion magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, or Elle...
.
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
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
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
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
as a map designer. A trip to Paris allowed him to take portraits of Picasso, Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
, Christian Berard
Christian Bérard
Christian Bérard , also known as Bébé, was a French artist, fashion illustrator and designer.Bérard and his lover Boris Kochno, who directed the Ballets Russes and was also co-founder of the Ballet des Champs-Elysées, were one of the most prominent openly homosexual couples in French theater during...
, Georges Braque
Georges Braque
Georges Braque[p] was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art style known as Cubism.-Early Life:...
, Jean Arp
Jean Arp
Jean Arp / Hans Arp was a German-French, or Alsatian, sculptor, painter, poet and abstract artist in other media such as torn and pasted paper....
, Joan Miró
Joan Miró
Joan Miró i Ferrà was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona.Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride...
, and others. After the war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he documented the ruins of Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
and became art editor for Heute magazine. In 1951 List met Robert Capa
Robert Capa
Robert Capa was a Hungarian combat photographer and photojournalist who covered five different wars: the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II across Europe, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the First Indochina War...
who invited him to join Magnum Photos
Magnum Photos
Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices located in New York, Paris, London and Tokyo...
. For the next decade he worked heavily in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. During this time he also started using a 35 mm film
35 mm film
35 mm film is the film gauge most commonly used for chemical still photography and motion pictures. The name of the gauge refers to the width of the photographic film, which consists of strips 35 millimeters in width...
camera and a telephoto lens. He was influenced by his Magnum colleague Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism. He was an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography...
as well as the Italian neorealism
Italian neorealism
Italian neorealism is a style of film characterized by stories set amongst the poor and working class, filmed on location, frequently using nonprofessional actors...
film movement. In the 1950s he also shot portraits of Marino Marini
Marino Marini
Marino Marini was an Italian sculptor. -Biography:He attended the Accademia Di Belle Arti in Florence in 1917. Although he never abandoned painting, Marini devoted himself primarily to sculpture from about 1922. From this time his work was influenced by Etruscan art and the sculpture of Arturo...
, Paul Bowles
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator.Following a cultured middle-class upbringing in New York City, during which he displayed a talent for music and writing, Bowles pursued his education at the University of Virginia before making various trips to Paris...
, W. H. Auden
W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...
, and Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
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 WeberBruce Weber (photographer)Bruce Weber is an American fashion photographer and occasional filmmaker. He is most widely known for his ad campaigns for Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Pirelli, Abercrombie & Fitch, Revlon, and Gianni Versace, as well as his work for Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, Elle, Life, Interview, and Rolling Stone...
und Texten von Herbert List u.a. Schirmer/Mosel, München 2000, ISBN 3-88814-533-3
External links
- Herbert List on glbtq.comGlbtq.comglbtq.com is an online encyclopedia that presents detailed biographies of notable gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. It was named one of the "Best Free Reference Web Sites" in 2005 by the American Library Association....
- Gallery of his works (three pages)
- Magnum Photos biography