Background information, content
"In the photographic volume 'The Magical Eye', the multifaceted work of Herbert LIST (1903-1975) is rediscovered. Many of his photographs, taken in Hamburg, Paris or Athens, exude an aura of mystery: It was his concern, similar to De Chirico or Magritte, to make the enigmatic and ambiguous of reality visible. He illustrated the dream of a living antiquity in photographs from Greece and Italy, depicted the destroyed city of Munich after 1945 and devoted himself to photo essays that were published in leading magazines such as LIFE and DU. The more than 220 original photographs from the period between 1930 and 1965 also document his interest in the male nude and non-European cultures. Numerous portraits of Pablo Picasso and Ingeborg Bachmann, for example, also demonstrate his mastery of this genre. He always depicts people with dignity and equality, regardless of their origin or gender." (© Hirmer Verlag, 2022)