Erich Lessing: Arresting Time: Reportage Photography, 1948-1973

Front Cover
Erich Lessing is a legend in photography. Born in 1923 in Vienna, he became a photo-reporter for Associated Press in 1947, and in 1951 he became one of the earliest members of the legendary Magnum photo cooperative. His remarkable 1950s images documenting post-World War Europe, and particularly his pictures of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, garnered worldwide admiration. Lessing's works always revolve around the human condition at the moment when power and powerlessness come face to face, when the joy of living is suddnely overclouded with pain. His photographs seize the opportunity to recount an instant of history that will never be repeated. This monumental book is a tribute to Lessing's talent as a photojournalist and a visual record of a time of turmoil and great change. Lessing has received international honors, including the American Art Directors' Award, the Grand Austrian State Prize for Artistic Photography, and many others. 400 duotone photographs.

About the author (2005)

Erich Lessing was born to Jewish parents in Vienna, Austria on July 13, 1923. He fled the Nazi annexation of Austria as a teenager in 1939 to Palestine. He studied radio engineering at a technical college and served in Britain's Sixth Airborne Division as a photographer and pilot. He returned to Austria in 1947. He was hired by Magnum Photos as a freelancer in 1951. He joined the agency full time in 1955 and became a part-time contributor in 1979. His photographs were included in The Louvre: All the Paintings. He died on August 29, 2018 at the age of 95.

Bibliographic information