Helmar Lerski 1871, Strasbourg, France-1956, Zürich, Switzerland

  • Helmar Lerski. Self-portrait

  • The setup of lighting was always a fundamental aspect of Lerski's artistic method: “Light is a proof that a photographer can create freely, following his mind’s eye, like a painter, designer, or sculptor”.

     

    1871, Strasbourg, France–1956, Zürich, Switzerland

    After spending over 20 years as an actor in the United States, Lerski ventured into photography. Throughout his life, he continuously shifted between photography and cinema. Drawing on his theatrical background, Lerski incorporated stage lighting techniques into his portraiture, particularly when capturing images of his actor friends.

     

    Lerski's distinctive style of portraiture, which was unconventional for its time in America, began to emerge. Rather than striving for an exact likeness or capturing individual facial features, he focused on universal imagery and archetypes. He employed contrasting light as a filter to eliminate any inaccuracies. Using numerous mirrors and special filters, he achieved dramatic light and shadow effects, transforming the human face into a sculpted landscape or an abstract relief.

     

    Remarkably, Lerski achieved these groundbreaking results without the use of extraordinary technical devices. His technique relied on a large-format camera, mirrors, and contact prints. The essence lay in his concept and artistic approach to portraiture.

     

    Lerski considered his most significant breakthrough to be his ability to convey the facial changes, transformations, and metamorphoses resulting from camera angles and lighting.

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    One of Lerski's most important series of works revolved around Palestinian portraits. After multiple trips to Palestine starting in 1931, he presented a series of portraits that showcased expressive and formal innovations. These works transcended mere artistic events, provoking ideological, nationalist, and religious debates. While creating his renowned Judaic portraits, Lerski was driven by the desire to officially document the Jewish national character in all its significance and grandeur:

    “I want to show only the prototype in all its off-shoots, and what is more, I want to show him so intensely that the prototype is recognizable in all later branches…”

     

    Despite the controversy stirred by his works, Lerski garnered support from the intellectual elite of the time. Notably, Albert Einstein, who later wrote introductions for Lerski's "Jewish Faces" catalog, was among the sympathizers of his work. The series expanded to include "Arabic Faces" and "Working Hands" photographs, which were exhibited at the Tel Aviv Museum in 1945.

     

    As a multimedia artist well ahead of his time, Lerski introduced numerous innovations to cinema. His films, such as "Avdah" and "Adamah," featured a unique rhythm, dynamic compositions, and revolutionary editing techniques. Esteemed critics regarded Lerski's films on par with Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin" and Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will."

     

    Today, experts consider Helmar Lerski, alongside Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen, to be one of the 20th century's photography classics and major innovators.

     

    SELECTED MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS:

    Tel Aviv Museum or Art (Tel Aviv, Israel)

    Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) (New York, NY, USA)

    The Israel Museum (Jerusalem, Israel)

    The Museum of Art and History of Judaism (ManJ) (Paris, France)

    Albertina Museum (Vienna, Austria)

    The Currier Museum of art (Manchester, NH, USA)

    The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) (Toronto, Canada)

  • Works
  • Installation shots
    Helmar Lerski Series (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Helmar Lerski. Lerski Pictures Series, 1911–1914 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Helmar Lerski. Everyday Faces, 1928–1931 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Helmar Lerski. Arabs and Jews, 1931–1935 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Helmar Lerski. Hands Portraits, 1944 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Helmar Lerski. Metamorphosis Through Light, 1936 (View more details about this item in a popup).

    Helmar Lerski Series

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    'Der Mensch – Mein Bruder'

  • Collection of 88 vintage prints – a layout for the book ‘Der Mensch – Mein Bruder’ (Mankind. My Brother) (1958)...

    ‘Der Mensch – Mein Bruder’ (Mankind. My Brother), 1958

    Collection of 88 vintage prints – a layout for the book ‘Der Mensch – Mein Bruder’ (Mankind. My Brother) (1958) – includes works from five significant series: Lerski Pictures (1911–1914), Everyday Faces (1928–1931), Arabs and Jews (1931–1935), Metamorphosis Through Light (1936), and Hands (1944).

     

    A compelling retrospective tribute published shortly after Lerski’s death, featuring silvery photogravures, includes essays by renowned writers Berthold Viertel and Arnold Zweig,

    as well as film director Louis Fürnberg. The tribute declared Lerski “a key influence on Germany’s Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement and a pioneering figure whose ‘eerie and transfixing’ expressionist style made him a leading Weimar cinematographer and portrait photographer.”

  • Lerski Pictures (1911–1914)

  • Just beginning the way of a photographer Lerski widely uses the theatrical experience and utilizes the effects of forced stagey... Just beginning the way of a photographer Lerski widely uses the theatrical experience and utilizes the effects of forced stagey... Just beginning the way of a photographer Lerski widely uses the theatrical experience and utilizes the effects of forced stagey... Just beginning the way of a photographer Lerski widely uses the theatrical experience and utilizes the effects of forced stagey...

    Just beginning the way of a photographer Lerski widely uses the theatrical experience and utilizes the effects of forced stagey lighting in the portraits of his friends-actors. Thereafter the unique style of Lerski portrait, uncommon for America of that time, starts coming out: contrasting light that enables to exclude all the individual, uncommon and underlines the universal, archetypical. Later this style was named "Lerski Pictures".

  • Everyday Faces (1928–1931)

  • After working as a film cameraman for nearly a decade, in 1928 Lerski was preparing to return to portrait photography.... After working as a film cameraman for nearly a decade, in 1928 Lerski was preparing to return to portrait photography.... After working as a film cameraman for nearly a decade, in 1928 Lerski was preparing to return to portrait photography.... After working as a film cameraman for nearly a decade, in 1928 Lerski was preparing to return to portrait photography....

    After working as a film cameraman for nearly a decade, in 1928 Lerski was preparing to return to portrait photography. Now he was interested in depicting artists, intellectuals, and very important persons from cultural and political spheres. Between 1929 and 1931 his images appeared in 'Vogue', 'Die Dame', 'die neue linie', 'Scherl's Magazine', 'Sport I'm Bild', and 'Die Weite Welt'. After a twelve year hiatus, the photographer managed once again to gain public recognition extremely quickly.

     

    During this period Lerski's studio (and living quarters) were frequented not only by celebrities, but also by unknown models. The unknowns were often unemployed workers, sent over by the unemployment office. Thus, he initiated his series 'Köpfe des Altags' (Everyday Faces).

     

    With a cut-out, an optical close-up, he tried to capture the essence of a face: eyes, nose, mouth. However, it was not recognizable features, not the individual appearance of his models with interested Lerski, but rather the undefinable, the "inner structure", which he hoped to "illuminate and penetrate", by utilizing a technical medium, a materialist method of image making.

  • Arabs and Jews (1931–1935)

  • One of Lerski’s most important series revolved around the portraits from “Arabs and Jews, Palestine.” After multiple trips to Palestine... One of Lerski’s most important series revolved around the portraits from “Arabs and Jews, Palestine.” After multiple trips to Palestine... One of Lerski’s most important series revolved around the portraits from “Arabs and Jews, Palestine.” After multiple trips to Palestine... One of Lerski’s most important series revolved around the portraits from “Arabs and Jews, Palestine.” After multiple trips to Palestine...

    One of Lerski’s most important series revolved around the portraits from “Arabs and Jews, Palestine.”

     

    After multiple trips to Palestine beginning in 1931, Helmar Lerski left Berlin for Palestine. He had succeeded in interesting French publisher Charles Peignot in a new book with a concept focused on depicting Jewish people as “a document of the Jewish race... of lasting value and authoritative import”: “I want to show only the prototype in all its offshoots, and, what is more, I want to show him so intensely that the prototype is recognizable in all later branches.”

     

    Driven by the desire to officially document the Jewish national character in all its significance and grandeur, Lerski created a series of Judaic portraits that transcended mere artistic expression, sparking ideological, nationalist, and religious debates. Despite the controversy, Lerski received strong support from the intellectual elite of the time, including Albert Einstein, who later wrote introductions for Lerski’s “Jewish Faces” catalog. The series expanded to include “Arab Faces” and “Working Hands,” which were later exhibited at the Tel Aviv Museum in 1945.

  • In his frequent correspondence with Albert Einstein, Lerski reflected on the state of the Jewish community. Einstein, aware of Lerski’s idea as early as 1930, wrote to him: “The Jews today are more a national than a religious community. The documentation of this type, as difficult as it may be, thus fulfills an active wish.”

     

    In 1932, Lerski settled in Tel Aviv, where he remained until his return to Europe in 1948. He continued his portraiture work, expanding his concept for Jewish portraits to include the series “Palestinian Portraits” and “Arab Portraits.”

  • Metamorphosis Through Light (1936)

  • At the beginning of 1936, Helmar Lerski started a new portraiture series. His model was a Jewish worker, who Lerski... At the beginning of 1936, Helmar Lerski started a new portraiture series. His model was a Jewish worker, who Lerski... At the beginning of 1936, Helmar Lerski started a new portraiture series. His model was a Jewish worker, who Lerski...

    At the beginning of 1936, Helmar Lerski started a new portraiture series. His model was a Jewish worker, who Lerski called 'Uschatz'. In the next three months he produced 175 images of the man remembered as a jack of all trades in Lerski's office.

     

    Lerski had conceived his metamorphosis project as early as 1930. When asked about further plans, he responded to the film critic, Hans Feld, that he later wanted to "create a book of portraits of somebody. Fifty images of one and the same person".

     

    Working on the rooftop terrace of Lerski's flat in Tel Aviv in the bright, morning sun, Lerski continually directed the light towards his model's face, using a great number of mirrors. Designated by Lerski as his magnum opus, 'Metamorphosis through Light' was to "furnish proof, that a photographer can create freely, following his mind's eye, like a painter, or sculpture."

  • Hands Portraits (1944)

  • In 1944, Lerski returned to 'Hand Portraits', originally conceived in 1930. This series depicted hands in action, but as staged... In 1944, Lerski returned to 'Hand Portraits', originally conceived in 1930. This series depicted hands in action, but as staged... In 1944, Lerski returned to 'Hand Portraits', originally conceived in 1930. This series depicted hands in action, but as staged... In 1944, Lerski returned to 'Hand Portraits', originally conceived in 1930. This series depicted hands in action, but as staged...

    In 1944, Lerski returned to "Hand Portraits", originally conceived in 1930. This series depicted hands in action, but as staged activities. Hand, pars pro toto, were thus interpreted as symbols of human creations, as a tool of the creator. As in 'Everyday Faces' series, Lerski classified the hands by occupation, hoping to point to the idealized categories.

     

    In this series Lerski turns the paper into skin: every fold, every muscle and even the bone structure become readable writing. This revelatory shaping of the surface is only possible through light art.

     

    "It's all in the skin, it only depends on where the light falls", said Lerski.

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