Herbert List (The Monograph)

Herbert List, who died in 1975, was one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century. Early in his career he photographed primarily in Italy and Greece, attracted like many previous travelers to the countries' beauty. List came of age in Germany during the development of the "new objectivity"; his photographs, surreal in aesthetic, in certain ways parallel de Chirico's paintings. After World War II he photographed the ruins of Munich, portraying the consequences of destruction by means of a classical visual form. List was the youngest of a famous group of photographers -- Hoyningen-Huene, Cecil Beaton, and Horst P. Horst -- and his photographic oeuvre is perhaps the freshest and most artistic of these distinguished individuals. This large volume assembles 250 of Herbert List's most famous images in the first comprehensive compilation of his work. The photographs are organized according to five themes: Metaphysical Photography, Ruins and Fragments, Eros and Photography, Portraits, and Moments. Accompanying the images are essays written by five important historians of photography and art.