About This Image

Signed by the photographer below image in margin in pencil. Vintage gelatin silver print on ivory double-weight paper (23.7 x 18.5 cm).

This image is a negative print of a transparency montage and is quite rare. This iconic image was featured on the cover of Otto Steinert's seminal photobook Subjektive Fotografie (1952), and is considered one of the most important German Post-War images.

Condition: Traces of previous mounting on verso, otherwise a strong print in near excellent condition.

See: Otto Steinert. Subjektive Fotografie. Band I. Bonn: Brüder Auer, 1952, ill. front cover.

Otto Hugo Wilhelm Steinert, born in Saarbrücken on July 12, 1915, was the father of "subjective photography".

Steinert studied among other things medicine in Munich from 1934-1939. In 1937, he was a cornet in the medical corps of the armed forces, and during WWII he was primarily deployed as a physician.

After the war, he first continued to work as a doctor in Kiel, but he returned after two years to Saarbrücken and worked as a portrait photographer. In 1948 he took over leadership of a photography class at the State School for Art and Handcrafts there. From 1949-50, together with Reisewitz, Keetman, Lauterwasser, Schneiders and Windstoßer, he was a charter member of the group "fotoform", which advocated for a new artistic conception of photography.

In the following year, the first exhibit of "subjective photography" in Saarbrücken took place. The group experimented with different photographic techniques (movement, blurriness, montage, solarization, etc.).

Among his best known works are "Ein-Fuß-Gänger" [A Pedestrian/One-Footed Walker] (1950) and the image for sale here, "Maske einer Tänzerin" (Dancer's Mask), 1952.

Steinert varied not only his technique, but also worked on a broad range of subjects and worked with portrait and landscape photography, advertising photography and reportage.

In 1952 he became a principal in Saarbrücken, and two years later he was appointed professor. In the same year, the exhibit "subjective photography 2" took place, while in 1958 a third and final one followed.

In 1959, Steinert took a position in Essen at the Folkwang School, where he organized numerous exhibits, was responsible for the "Photographic Collection of the Folkwang Museum", and taught as well. Steinert's teaching career shaped an entire generation of photographers.

Otto Steinert died on March 3, 1978, in Essen. His work is in the collections of the Museum Folkwang, Essen; Saarlandmuseum, Saarbrücken; Städel Museum Frankfurt/Main; Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, USA; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

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