Werner Bischof

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(b Zurich, 26 April 1916; d Andes Mountains, Peru, 16 May 1954). Swiss photographer. He studied photography from 1932 to 1936 with Hans Finsler at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich. From 1936 he worked as a freelance photographer and graphic artist, until obtaining a post with the Graphis publishing house in Zurich in 1938. Between 1942 and 1944 he published photographs of war damage in Europe in the magazine Du. His first collection 24 Photos von Werner Bischof was published shortly afterwards. He won success in 1948 with his coverage of the winter Olympic Games in St Moritz for Life magazine: he was awarded contracts by Picture Post, Weekly Illustrated and the Observer and became a member of the Magnum agency. Thereafter until his death in 1954 he travelled as a photojournalist through Europe, Asia and South America, reporting on famine, war and daily life in the Third World.

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Bischof, Werner (1916-54), Swiss photographer, initially influenced by his father, an ambitious amateur. Training under Hans Finsler at the Zurich Design School gave him mastery of practical, impeccably staged object and product photography, and he opened a ‘Foto-Grafik’ studio in Zurich. In 1942 he joined the staff of the journal Du, working initially in fashion. In 1945 he took up photojournalism, travelling through Europe to document the effects of war and publishing in international magazines. In 1948 he joined Magnum, and in 1951 co-founded the Council of Swiss Photographers. That year he made his international breakthrough with the photo-essay Hunger in India for Life. Bischof's approach was humanistic, documenting war, hunger, and misery in an aesthetically detached way. Particularly his images of children transcend suffering by their compositional poise and precision. His last years were spent travelling in Asia, the USA, and South America. He died in a road accident in the Andes.

— Ulrich Rüter

Bibliography

• Werner Bischof: Leben und Werk 1916-1954 (1990)

Werner Bischof (26 April 1916 – 16 May 1954) was a Swiss photographer and photojournalist.

Bischof was born in Zürich, Switzerland. When he was six years old, the family moved to Waldshut, Germany, where he subsequently went to school. In 1932, having abandoned studies to become a teacher, he enrolled at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zürich, where he graduated cum laude in 1936. From 1939 on, he worked as an independent photographer for various magazines, in particular the renowned magazine du based in Zürich. He travelled extensively from 1945 to 1949 through nearly all European countries from France to Romania and from Norway to Greece. His works on the devastation in post-war Europe established him as one of the foremost photojournalists of his time. In 1949, he joined Magnum Photos, which at the time was composed of just five other photographers: Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, David Seymour, and Ernst Haas.

In 1951, he went to India, working for Life magazine, and then to Japan and Korea. For the magazine Paris Match he worked as a war reporter in Vietnam. In 1954, he travelled through Mexico and Panama, before flying to Peru, where he embarked on a trip through the Andes to the Amazonas on 14 May. On 16 May his car fell off a cliff on a mountain road in the Andes, and all three passengers were killed.

External links

• Werner Bischof Estate

Literature

• Bischof, M.; Magnaguagno, G.; Loetscher, H.: Werner Bischof, Bullfinch 1992; ISBN 0-8212-1817-4.
• Cookman, C.: Werner Bischof, Phaidon Press 2001; ISBN 0-7148-4041-6.
• Mafai, M.; Bischof, W.: After the War, Smithsonian Books 1997; ISBN 1-56098-721-9.
• du 9/1990: "Werner Bischof: Europa 1945 - 1950"; Tages-Anzeiger AG 1990

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