Magnum's Samantha McCoy on the Artspace photos she loves
Herbert List
You are following
Follow
Herbert List's iconically austere, black-and-white photographs have been irrefutably formative to the aesthetics of modern photography. A member of photo cooperative Magnum Photos, List was a contemporary of Henri Cartier-Bresson, the inventor of street photography. Through the influence of Bresson, as well as the Italian Neo-Realist film movement, List's photographs become spontaneous, capturing key moments of candid life. His work was featured prominently in Vogue, Harpar's Bazaar, and Life Magazine. Influenced early on by the philosophies of Bauhaus and Surrealism, List was able to take photographs that possess a remarkable combination of dynamic, solid compositional strength as well as a mysterious and ellusive magic—he developed a style of photography called "Fotografia Metafisica," using mirrors and double exposures to capture dream states and fantasy imagery. Be they still lifes, a landscape, a portrait of Picasso, or a candid photo of beach-goers, List's ability to capture the specific beauty and mystery of our world knew no subjective bounds.
List's work has been featured extensively in exhibitions throughout Europe and the United States over the past 80 years, including several retrospectives in Germany. His work has been exhibited at International Center for Photography, Pace MacGill, the Musée National des Monuments Francais in Paris, and …
Herbert List's iconically austere, black-and-white photographs have been irrefutably formative to the aesthetics of modern photography. A member of photo cooperative Magnum Photos, List was a contemporary of Henri Cartier-Bresson, the inventor of street photography. Through the influence of Bresson, as well as the Italian Neo-Realist film movement, List's photographs become spontaneous, capturing key moments of candid life. His work was featured prominently in Vogue, Harpar's Bazaar, and Life Magazine. Influenced early on by the philosophies of Bauhaus and Surrealism, List was able to take photographs that possess a remarkable combination of dynamic, solid compositional strength as well as a mysterious and ellusive magic—he developed a style of photography called "Fotografia Metafisica," using mirrors and double exposures to capture dream states and fantasy imagery. Be they still lifes, a landscape, a portrait of Picasso, or a candid photo of beach-goers, List's ability to capture the specific beauty and mystery of our world knew no subjective bounds.
List's work has been featured extensively in exhibitions throughout Europe and the United States over the past 80 years, including several retrospectives in Germany. His work has been exhibited at International Center for Photography, Pace MacGill, the Musée National des Monuments Francais in Paris, and the Goethe Institute to name just a few.
Works Available for Purchase
No works
