About German MAGNUM photographer, Herbert LIST (1903-1975)

Herbert LIST is considered a 'modern classic' and was best known for his surreal black and white photographs. Inspired by Andreas FEININGER and influenced by artists such as Giorgio de Chirico, Magritte as well as Man RAY, he began to photograph seriously himself in 1930. In 1935 he emigrated to Paris, where in 1937 he also had his first exhibition at the Galerie du Chasseur d'Images. In London in 1937, he made his first attempts at studio photography, working for Verve, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Life magazines, among others. After the end of the war, 1945, he photographed the city of Munich, which lay in ruins, and became art editor for the magazine 'Heute', published by the occupying powers in Germany. In the following years he traveled the world and he published photographs and photo essays in Heute, Du, Epoca, Look, Harper's Bazaar, Flair, Picture Post, Life etc. He was associated with the Magnum agency during this period, but he accepted only a few commissions. In 1963 he published his last book in a series of publications. In 1964 the Society of German Photographers (German Photographic Academy) awarded him the David Octavius Hill Medal. Herbert LIST died in Munich in 1975. 

Photo books by and about the work of Herbert LIST (a selection)

  • 'Licht über Hellas' (1953); 'Rom' (1955); 'Hundert Jahre Weltwirtschaft im Spiegel eines Unternehmens' (1956); 'Caribia' (1958); 'Napoli' (1962); 'Photographien 1930–1970' (1976, 1980); 'Portraits' (1977); 'Fotografien Metafisica' (1980); 'Photographs. 1930-1970' (1981); 'Junge Männer' (1988); 'Das Magische im Vorübergehen' (1992h); 'Italien' (1994); 'Memento 1945. Münchner Ruinen' (1995); 'Die Monographie' (2000); 'Walter Hege und Herbert List. Griechische Tempelarchitektur in photographischer Inszenierung' (2003); 'Das Gesamtwerk. Photographien 1930-1972' (2007); 'Licht über Hamborn. Der Magnum-Fotograf Herbert List und die August Thyssen-Hütte im Wiederaufbau' (2014); 'Herbert List' (2015); 'Den Körper aktivieren. Verlebendigung und Mortifikation bei Herbert List' (2016); 'Das Magische Auge' (2022); 'Panoptikum' (2022);

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The book 'Das Magische Auge' (Magic Eye) shows the versatile work of Herbert LIST. Many of his photographs were taken in cities like Hamburg, Paris or Athens and exude an aura of mystery: Thus he wanted to illustrate the profound and ambiguous of reality.
45,00 € * Weight 1.2 kg
Out-of-print volume 'Caribia' by Herbert LIST with images taken in Haiti, Martinique, Trinidad & Jamaica mainly contains pictures of people he documented at work, during leisure time, at religious ceremonies, in and in front of bars, on the road & at home
0,00 € Weight 0.7 kg
SIGNED! 'Reden wir über Fotografie" (Let's talk about photography) is a collection of essays and interviews by photo historian Hans-Michael Koetzle. He accompanies us on amazing paths through the history & present of photography, an alway in flux medium.
29,80 € * Weight 0.4 kg
The bibliophile photo volume 'Panoptikum' by Herbert LIST, published for the first time, contains b/w photographs taken in 1944 in the Prater in Vienna, which show fairy tale scenes, historical tableaux as well as medical subjects created from wax figures
54,00 € * Weight 1.2 kg
'Kiosk. A History of Photojournalism 1839-1973' by Robert LEBECK & Bodo von Dewitz (ICP Infinity Award 2002) leads you in nine chapters through the eras of international photojournalism and offers an overview of the topics of past decades and centuries.
58,00 € * Weight 2 kg
'Photographers A-Z' brings together photographers who have made a significant contribution to photographic culture, as well as the most important photographic volumes of the past century. The entries are illustrated with facsimiles from books & magazines.
from 16,00 €
The volume 'Walter Hege and Herbert List. Griechische Tempelarchitektur in photographischer Inszenierung' by Matthias Harder examines two basic photographic convictions on the basis of images from the 1920s and 1930s: contextual accuracy versus alienation
75,00 € * Weight 1 kg
Exhibitions (a selection)
  • 2014: 'Light over Hamborn. The Magnum Photographer Herbert List and the August-Thyssen-Hütte in Reconstruction', Head Office of ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe AG, Duisburg; subsequently Westphalian Industrial Museum Heinrichshütte, Hattingen;
    2018: 'Part Flight, Part Longing. From the path to exile of the photographer Herbert List', Johanna Breede PHOTOKUNST, Berlin;