Otto Steinert

(b Saarbr?cken, 12 July 1915; d Essen, 3 March 1978). German photographer. He studied medicine from 1934 to 1939, practising until 1947, when he set up a photographic portrait studio in Saarbr?cken. A self-taught photographer, he set up a course in photography at the Staatliche Schule f?r Kunst und Handwerk, Saarbr?cken, in 1948. The following year he founded the Fotoform group with Peter Keetman, Toni Schneiders (b 1920), Ludwig Windstosser (1921-83), Wolfgang Reisewitz (b 1917), Siegfried Lauterwasser (b 1913) and Heinz Hajek-Halke (1898-1983). The concept of Subjektive Fotografie was Steinert's but was supported by the group as a whole, who first exhibited at the Photokina exhibition in 1950. Subjektive Fotografie emphasized personal vision and experimental photography over documentary realism, and the first exhibition included a section on the work of L?szl? Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer and Man Ray. Three exhibitions with the title Subjektive Fotografie were held (1951, 1954, 1958). These gave Steinert and the other members of Fotoform the opportunity to systematize developments in creative photography while acknowledging the legacy of Neue Sachlichkeit, the Bauhaus and Surrealism. Steinert believed Subjektive Fotografie to form the basis of an international pictorial language. He published two books to explain the philosophy behind the exhibitions, Subjektive Fotografie and Subjektive Fotografie II.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

Steinert, Otto (1915-78), German photographer, theorist, and teacher. Trained as a doctor and self-taught as a photographer, Steiner became highly influential in the 1950s as leader of the West German fotoform group and the ‘Subjective Photography’ movement. He looked back particularly to the New Vision photographers of the inter-war years, especially Man Ray, Moholy-Nagy, and Bayer, and, in rejecting the neo- pictorialist blandness of the post-war club and salon scene in favour of maximum exploration of creative techniques such as cameraless images, negative printing, and solarization, prepared the way for late 20th-century acceptance of the photographer as an autonomous artist. These ideas were influential as far afield as Japan. Steinert also gained an international reputation as a teacher, first at the Art and Craft School in Saarbrücken, then from 1959 at the Folkwang School in Essen. He developed the Folkwang Museum's photographic collection, organized frequent exhibitions, and wrote prolifically on photography.

— Robin Lenman

Bibliography

• Eskildsen, U. (ed.), Der Fotograf Otto Steinert (1999)

Otto Steinert (July 12, 1915 – March 3, 1978) was an important German photographer.

Born in Saarbrücken, Germany, Steinert was a medical doctor by profession and was an autodidact in photography. After World War II, he initially worked for the State School for Art and Craft (Staatliche Schule für Kunst und Handwerk, today HTW) in Saarbrücken. From 1959, he taught at a design school (Folkwang Hochschule) in Essen, where he later died.

His assets are today part of the photographic collection of the Museum Folkwang, Essen.

External links

• Images by Otto Steinert (PDF)

Persondata
NAME	Steinert, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	German photographer
DATE OF BIRTH	July 12, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH	Saarbrücken, Germany
DATE OF DEATH	March 3, 1978
PLACE OF DEATH	Essen, Germany

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