ANDREAS BERNHARD LYOEL FEININGER

Andreas Bernhard Lyonel Feininger (27 December 1906 - 18 February 1999) was a German
American photographer, and writer on photographic technique, noted for his dynamic black-andwhite scenes of Manhattan and studies of the structure of natural objects.

[edit] Biography
Feininger was born in Paris, France, to an American family of German origin. His father, painter
Lyonel Feininger, was born in New York City, in 1871.[1] His great-grandfather emigrated from
Durlach, Baden, in Germany, to the United States in 1848.
Feininger grew up and was educated as an architect in Germany, where his father painted and
taught at Staatliches Bauhaus. In 1936, he gave up architecture itself, moved to Sweden, and
focused on photography. In advance of World War II, in 1939, Feininger immigrated to the U.S.
where he established himself as a freelance photographer and in 1943 joined the staff of Life
magazine, an association that lasted until 1962.
Feininger became famous for his photographs of New York. Science and nature, as seen in
bones, shells, plants and minerals, were other frequent subjects, but rarely did he photograph
people or make portraits. Feininger wrote comprehensive manuals about photography, of which
the best known is The Complete Photographer. In the introduction to one of Feininger's books of
photographs, Ralph Hattersley described him as "one of the great architects who helped create
photography as we know it today." In 1966, the American Society of Media Photographers
(ASMP) awarded Feininger its highest distinction, the Robert Leavitt Award. In 1991, the
International Center of Photography awarded Feininger the Infinity Lifetime Achievement
Award.
Today, Feininger's photographs are in the permanent collections of the Center for Creative
Photography, Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art,
London's Victoria and Albert Museum, and the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York.