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);
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;