Andreas Feininger

Photographer Andreas Feininger (1906–1999) was trained as a cabinet-maker at the Bauhaus, where his father Lyonel was a master instructor. After earning a degree in structural engineering and architecture, Feininger relocated to Stockholm. With the coming of war in 1939, he emigrated to New York City. Work for the Office of War Information led in 1943 to a staff position at Life magazine that he would hold for twenty years. Teaching himself intricate telephoto, close-up, and time-lapse techniques, Feininger produced picture-stories that linked art and science, nature and industry, from the elemental structure of organic matter to the rise and fall of great cities. After leaving Life in 1962, Feininger photographed and authored over twenty thematic monographs. The photographs discussed and illustrated in this catalogue’s essay by curator Joel Smith are among 72 prints given in 2001 to the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center by the artist’s widow, Gertrude Wysse Feininger.