Erich Lessing
Erich Lessing ( born July 13, 1923 in Vienna) is an Austrian photographer.
Life and work
Erich Lessing comes from a Jewish family in Vienna. The father was a dentist, his mother a concert pianist. In 1939, he took yet had the opportunity to emigrate to Palestine, while his family was murdered. He learned radio technology and worked on a kibbutz and in various professions. Finally, he made his hobby from the youth to the profession and started working as a photographer, which finally led to the British Army.
On his return to Austria in 1947, he met his wife Traudl, who worked as a journalist for the Associated Press. About it he was Associated Press photo-journalist, an activity which he held until 1949. From 1951 he was a member of Magnum Photos. Also for other magazines, such as for the magazines Life and Paris Match he photographed his main activities was in Eastern Europe. A photo that went around the world, was taken up on the occasion of the Austrian State Treaty with Leopold Figl and the Allied Foreign Ministers on the balcony of the Belvedere.
Other famous photos were taken in Budapest, he photographed during the Hungarian uprising. But numerous western personalities were held by him in photos, such as Konrad Adenauer and Charles de Gaulle.
Desirability was Erich Lessing as a set photographer well-known movies, including The Sound of Music or Alexis Sorbas. In 2011, visited in just one month 30,000 guests his photo exhibition " Erich Lessing - The Making of The Sound of Music " in Salzburg. He has published over 40 books which have appeared in different publishers. They are supplemented with texts his wife to part.
2006 were shown in a retrospective on the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising in Vienna's Leopold Museum many unknown photos. In 2012, he opened himself a photo gallery in Vienna at the age of 89 years. In the summer of 2013 he donated his extensive private archive over 60,000 photos of the Austrian National Library
Erich Lessing is the father of Hannah Lessing.
Awards
- Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class of the Republic of Austria, 2013
- Prix Nadar for his picture book L' Odyssée
- Dr. -Karl -Renner- journalism prize
- American Art Directors Award for the books on the Hungarian uprising in
- Imre Nagy memorial plaque of the Republic of Hungary
- Golden glory of Styria
- Silver Medal of the City of Vienna
- City of Vienna Prize for Fine Arts
- State Award for artistic photography of the Republic of Austria 1997
- Honorary Member of the Vienna Künstlerhaus