Herbert List was born in Hamburg in 1903.
He studied literature at the University of Heidelberg and returned to Hamburg in 1924 to work as a trainee in his father's coffee importing business, la List & Heineken.
He became a businessman and then a solicitor; it was during one of his many business trips that he discovered his passion for photography, as a hobby with no artistic intention. But suddenly he realised that he was more interested in photography than in his actual work. He began to study artists such as De Chirico, René Magritte and Man Ray and soon decided to quit his job and take up photography as a profession: it was 1930.
His interest in European avant-garde art led him to meet the photographer Andreas Feinenger, who introduced him to the use of Rolleiflex cameras, which allowed for more elaborate composition.
In 1936 he left Germany for political and personal reasons, moving to Paris and then London, where he met the Russian fashion photographer George Hoyningen-Huene. Thanks to him, List was hired by the famous fashion magazine "Haper's Bazaar".
He also began to devote himself to still-life photography in his studio and travelled extensively in Greece, where he spent a long time admiring the temples, sculptures and landscapes. In 1937, he organised his first exhibition in Paris and his photographs began to be published in Life, Photographie, Verve e Harper’s Bazaar. At the same time, he began to work on his first book of photographs: Licht über Hellas, published in 1953.
Working in Athens, List thought he could skip the draft, but the invasion of Greece forced him to return to Germany in 1941. Because of his Jewish origins, he was officially forbidden to work or publish in Germany. During this period, most of the works he had produced up to that point, which were stored in a Paris hotel, were lost forever. During the war, most of his production was limited to a few portraits, including those of Picasso, Mirò and Cocteau, and a series of photographs taken at the Panoptikum in Vienna.
In 1951, Herbert met Robert Capa, who persuaded him to join Magnum. However, the German photographer never accepted much work from the agency.
Between 1950 and 1960, List's interest turned towards Italy, where he photographed everything from street photography to portraits of famous artists and architecture. In 1953, he switched to 35mm and his style became more spontaneous, inspired by the work of Henri Cartier Bresson and Italian neorealism. During these years he published several books of photographs, including Rome, Cabiria, Nigeria and Naples, the latter in collaboration with De Sica.
His compositions, usually in black and white and with classical features, show the subjects as simple and arcaic elements, protagonists of the play of light. Even in his very important photographs of male nudes, the style is rigorous but full of artistic references: the nude highlights the beauty of the forms, the contrast between the soft flesh and the sharp lines of the background, the play of chiaroscuro on the muscles and taut tendons.
List influenced generations of photographers who, like him, wanted more than technical perfection to "capture in the image the magic of appearance and the power of vision".
Herbert List left the photographic scene at the beginning of the 1960s, although he was a famous photographer, his particular style was no longer appreciated in those years. When he died in Monaco in 1975, his work was almost forgotten.
In the Domi Gallery you will find the photograph "Portofino", an icon of the original and unique style of Herbert List. 