New
Unfortunately, this artwork cannot be added to the room view.
Erich Lessing
Erich Lessing is one of the great pioneers of post-war photography. As a Magnum photographer, he chronicled the defining political and social upheavals in Europe – from the signing of the Austrian… Read more
Bio Exhibitions
Unfortunately, this artwork cannot be added to the room view.
New
Unfortunately, this artwork cannot be added to the room view.
Unfortunately, this artwork cannot be added to the room view.
Unfortunately, this artwork cannot be added to the room view.
Unfortunately, this artwork cannot be added to the room view.
Unfortunately, this artwork cannot be added to the room view.
Unfortunately, this artwork cannot be added to the room view.
Unfortunately, this artwork cannot be added to the room view.
Unfortunately, this artwork cannot be added to the room view.
Unfortunately, this artwork cannot be added to the room view.
Unfortunately, this artwork cannot be added to the room view.
Unfortunately, this artwork cannot be added to the room view.
Unfortunately, this artwork cannot be added to the room view.
Unfortunately, this artwork cannot be added to the room view.
Unfortunately, this artwork cannot be added to the room view.
Unfortunately, this artwork cannot be added to the room view.
Background Information about Erich Lessing
Introduction
Erich Lessing is one of the great pioneers of post-war photography. As a Magnum photographer, he chronicled the defining political and social upheavals in Europe – from the signing of the Austrian State Treaty in 1955 to the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. His photographs became symbols of an era, published in international magazines such as LIFE, Paris Match, and Picture Post.
Born in Vienna in 1923, Lessing survived the Holocaust in exile in Palestine, returned in 1947, and found his distinctive visual language as a photojournalist. Unadorned, precise, humanistic—this is how he captured people and history. But his photographs are more than historical testimonies—their rare balance of documentary precision and artistic composition makes them valuable collector's items of classic photography.
As a humanist, he was always interested in people in the context of their time – politicians such as Eisenhower, Adenauer, and de Gaulle, as well as artists from Oskar Kokoschka to Herbert von Karajan. He photographed on film sets from Moby Dick to The Sound of Music, but also the seemingly everyday, which he transformed with a keen sense into images of timeless power.
This breadth is also evident in the LUMAS portfolio. In photographs such as Berlin bleibt frei (Berlin Remains Free), history becomes immediately tangible—a symbol of the promise of freedom in post-war Europe. Works such as Ski Children and Lady and Poodle, on the other hand, focus on everyday life, full of wit, observation, and empathy. They reveal how people shape their times – and how much contemporary history is contained in the details of everyday life.
From the 1960s onwards, he turned to large-format color photography and created sensational art and cultural documentaries. He produced over sixty books in which he visually reinterpreted historical sites and works of art. The photographs of Hagia Sophia, for example, testify to this approach: they show the iconic building in radiant light and open up a view of architecture as living history.
Music also has a place in his oeuvre. His portraits of Glenn Gould at the piano or Herbert von Karajan conducting capture the intensity that transforms sound into lived emotion. They are not just portraits of musicians, but visual translations of rhythm, devotion, and energy.
Whether historical icons, cultural buildings, or everyday scenes: Erich Lessing's work encompasses everything that makes classic photography so unique—precise technique, analog rigor, and at the same time a narrative richness.
Honored worldwide, with exhibitions, teaching positions, and awards, Lessing remains one of the most important representatives of classic analog photography. His works are photographic treasures that have had an impact far beyond their time and continue to shape our culture of remembrance to this day.
Honored worldwide, with exhibitions, teaching positions, and awards, Lessing remains one of the most important representatives of classic analog photography. His works are photographic treasures that have had an impact far beyond their time and continue to shape our culture of remembrance to this day.
Bio
| 1923 | Born in Vienna, Austria |
| 1939 | Moved to Palestine |
| Apprenticeship as Radiotechnician at Technion, Haifa, Israel | |
| 1947 | Return to Austria |
| Photoreporter Associated Press | |
| Since 1951 | Member of the photographic corporation MAGNUM, Paris/New York |
| 1973 | Appointed to professor by the austrian president Franz Jonas |
| Establishes the professorship for photography at the academy for arts, India | |
| Lives in Vienna, Austria |
Awards
| 2013 | Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class Golden Medal of Honor of the Province of Styria Silver Medal of Honor of the City of Vienna Honorary member of the Vienna Künstlerhaus |
| 1997 | Big Austrian Stateprize, Austria |
| 1992 | Silver Medal of the City Vienna, Austria |
| 1992 | Imre Nagy Medal |
| 1976 | Viennese Cultureprize, Austria |
| 1970 | Dr. Karl Renner Prize, Austria |
| 1966 | Prix Nadar for the book Die Odyssee, France |
| 1956 | American Art Editors’ Award, USA |
Exhibitions
| 2025 | Austrian Belvedere, Vienna – Permanent Exhibition of Erich Lessing’s photographs |
| 2025 | Reform Club London – Exhibition of Erich Lessing’s works |
| 2025 | Arsenal Vienna / Magnum Photo Exhibition |
| 2024 | Reform Club London – Exhibition with other photo artists |
| 2024 | Permanent Exhibition of Austrian State Treaty photographs – Lower Austrian Farmers’ Association |
| 2023 | Extended Permanent Exhibition – Federal Chancellery Vienna |
| 2023 | Tribute for the 100th Birthday: Art at the Federal Chancellery – Erich Lessing “Eyes that are gifted to see” An exhibition of Erich Lessing’s works on the occasion of his 100th birthday |
| 2022 | Austrian State Treaty photographs displayed in the Chancellor’s Office |
| 2021 | present Federal Chancellery Austria / Vienna – Grand Staircase |
| 2016 | 60 Years of the Hungarian Revolution, Burg Schlaining Peace Museum, Stadtschlaining, Austria |
| 2016 | Vienna and Austria since 1945, Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| 2015 | The Pulse of Time: Capturing Social Change in Post-war Europe, University Museum & Art Gallery, Hong Kong, China |
| 2015 | Behind the Scenes – On the 50th Anniversary of “The Sound of Music,” Leica Gallery, Arenberg Castle, Salzburg, Austria |
| 2015 | Lessing presents Lessing, Austrian Cultural Forum, New York, USA |
| 2015 | Lessing Shows Lessing, Jewish Museum, Vienna, Austria |
| 2015 | Erich Lessing: Magnum Photos, Austrian Cultural Forum, Prague, Czech Republic |
| 2015 | Elsewhere, foto-forum Galleria, Bolzano, Italy |
| 2013 | Budapest 1956, Austrian Cultural Forum, Budapest, Hungary |
| 2013 | Erich Lessing: Magnum Photos, Atelier Jungwirth, Graz, Austria |
| 2012 | Europe, Europe, Vetrinjski dvor (European Capital of Culture 2012), Maribor, Slovenia |
| 2012 | Erich Lessing – Europe after the War. Photographs 1950–1960, City Gallery, Fellbach, Germany |
| 2011 | Erich Lessing: Vintages & Modern Prints, Gallery Makartgasse, Vienna, Austria |
| 2011 | Power of pictures, Parliament Vienna, Austria |
| 2011 | Erich Lessing :The Making of Sound of Music, Kunstpavillon White Noise, Salzburg, Austria |
| 2011 | Erich Lessing: Am Puls der Zeit, Citygallery Klagenfurt , Klagenfurt, Austria |
| 2010 | Erich Lessing: CINEMA, Gallery Anika Handelt, Vienna, Austria |
| 2009 | Herbert von Karajan, Leica Gallery, New York, USA |
| 2009 | Europe: In-Between Document and Fiction, The National Centre of Dance, Bucharest, Romania |
| 2008 | Erich Lessing: Unterwegs, Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria |
| 2008 | Herbert von Karajan: Leica Galerie, Salzburg, Austria |
| 2008 | Vintages, Galerie Fotohof, Salzburg, Austria |
| 2007 | Arresting Time, Base sous marine, Bordeaux, France |
| 2007 | Europe 50 years ago, Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, Vienna, Austria |
| 2007 | Reportage-Photographien 1948 - 1973, Gallery Momentum, Vienna, Austria |
| 2006 | The Hungarian Revolution in 1956, Budapest Historical Museum, Budapest, Hungary |
| 2005 | Free! Liberation and Sovereignty Austria 1945-1955, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, USA |
| 2005 | Von der Befreiung zur Freiheit - Schwarzenberg Kazerne, Salzburg/Wals, Austria |
| 2003 | People Known and Unknown - Photofusion Gallery, London, UK |
| 2003 | Arresting Time - Dimbola Lodge Museum, Isle of Wight, UK |
| 2003 | Photographien der 50er Jahre - Museum Modern Kunst, Passau, Germany |
| 2002 | Erich Lessing Photography, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria |
| 2000 | Erich Lessing: 50 anni di fotografia, Bologna, Italy |
| 1999 | Erich Lessing - School of Art Gallery and Museum, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK |
You may also like these artists
