Exhibition: Erich Lessing “Elsewhere”
Opening: 21.04.2015 6 pm
Introduction: Tizza Covi
Duration of the exhibition: 22.04.2015 – 25.04.2015 + 12.05.2015 – 16.06.2015
Erich Lessing, Vienna, Parco dei divertimenti “Prater”, 1954
“I never actually thought of doing anything other than telling stories, and the camera became the medium with which I wanted to do that. But I don’t go for a walk with the camera. I pick it up as a means to a very specific end. I look at the world with my own eyes, not through the viewfinder of a camera. I don’t interpret, I don’t change anything in the darkroom. I’m a realistic photographer.” Erich Lessing
Erich Lessing, Parigi, Incontro al vertice, 1960
The exhibition at the foto-forum in Bolzano shows some selected photographs from “Anderswo” [“Elsewhere”], a book of photographs that was recently published. The film Der Fotograf vor der Kamera [“The Photographer in Front of the Camera”] by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel documents Erich Lessing’s process of selecting images for just this book project.
Erich Lessing, Cracovia, Bar Mitzwa, 1956
Erich Lessing, born 1923 in Vienna, 1939 emigration to Palestine, 1946 return to Vienna, beginning as a photo reporter with the American news agency Associated Press, reportages incl. for Quick, Life, Paris Match, Epoca. Member of the photographer cooperative Magnum since 1951. In 1956 documentation of Hungarian uprising; numerous other major documentations. Since the 1960s, photos for cultural history picture books on the Odyssey, the Bible, the history of Austria and France. Founding of an extensive photographic archive.
Erich Lessing, Cesenatico (Italia), 1960
Erich Lessing was awarded numerous prizes for his work, most recently the Austrian Cross for Services Rendered to Science and the Arts, First Class (2013).
Erich Lessing, Dresda, 1959
www.mischief-films.com/filme/der-fotograf-vor-der-kamera
www.nimbusbooks.ch/buch/anderswo
www.lessingimages.com
In collaboration with: Bozner Filmtage 2015