Helmar Lerski
Helmar Lerski ( Hebrew הֶלְמַר לֶרְסקי; * February 18, 1871 in Strasbourg ; † September 29, 1956 in Zurich ), born Israel Schmuklerski , later also: Hjalmar Lerski , was a Swiss photographer , cameraman and film director .
Life
The son of the Polish-Jewish emigrant couple Lea and Getzel Schmuklerski from Zgierz grew up in 1876 in the Zurich district of Aussersihl , which was later incorporated into Zurich , where the family received Swiss citizenship on August 28, 1887 . On January 3, 1893, he traveled to the United States and appeared in Chicago , Milwaukee and New York City as an actor on German-speaking stages. Since April 30, 1897 he called himself Helmar Lerski .
In 1910 he set up a photo studio in Milwaukee with his wife Emilie. His picture publications appeared from 1911. With this and at exhibitions, he quickly made a name for himself as an innovative portrait photographer. In 1914/15 he taught as a visiting professor for German language and literature at the University of Texas at Austin .
In 1915 he returned to Europe and became a cameraman and photographer in Berlin . He worked for various production companies and, because of his outstanding skills, was entrusted with technically demanding tasks such as Paul Leni's The Wax Figure Cabinet . Lerski, who married Anneliese Margarete Wolfkamp in 1922 after the death of his first wife, who died in 1921, was technical director for Schüfftan photography at Deutsche Spiegeltechnik GmbH & Co, which was employed at Fritz Lang's Metropolis , from 1925 to 1927 . In 1925 he worked for Arnold Fanck in his film The Holy Mountain as a cameraman alongside Sepp Allgeier and Hans Schneeberger with actors such as Leni Riefenstahl and Luis Trenker .
From 1929 he worked again as a portrait photographer. In 1931 he traveled to Palestine for the first time to take pictures of Jewish settlers. In the fall of 1932 he went back there, and the Nazis than 1,933 power in Germany took over , he did not come back.
His photo series Metamorphoses , published in 1982, was created in 1936 . He took around 170 close-up photographs of the face of a single young man in Tel Aviv . In addition to photos, Lerski also made a few short documentaries at this time, which he directed himself. In 1937/38 he traveled to France and England to present his works. From 1939 to 1941 he headed the film department of the Jewish trade union Histadrut (הָהִסְתַּדְּרוּת הַכְּלָלִית שֶׁל הָעוֹבְדִים בְּאֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל). In addition to documentaries, he created the puppet film Baalam's Story from 1945 to 1947 . Helmar Lerski's last film Adamah (= earth) from 1948 tells the story of the arrival and settling in of the young Holocaust survivor Benjamin in the children's and youth village Ben Shemen .
On March 22, 1948, Helmar Lerski left Palestine with his wife and returned to Zurich .
Photo works by Lerski
From the Human Hands series (1933–1940)
From the series Jewish Soldiers (1942–1943)
Exhibitions (selection)
- 1912: Helmar Lerski, Portraits , Annual Convention of Photographer's Association of America, Philadelphia
- 1929: Contemporary photography, Museum Folkwang, Essen (further positions: Galerie Neumann-Nierendorf, Berlin; Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover; atrium of the New Town Hall, Dresden; exhibition building on Adolf-Mittag-See, Magdeburg; Kunstverein Rostock)
- 1929: International exhibition of the German Werkbund 'Film and Photo' , Stuttgart (further stations: Zurich, Berlin, Danzig, Vienna, Agram)
- 1930: drawn or snapped? Art paper exhibition in Reckendorf-Haus, Berlin (further positions: Frankfurter Kunstverein; Kunstgewerbemuseum Cologne; Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden; Kunstkring Groningen / Netherlands; Kunstverein Halle)
- 1936: Helmar Lerski, Metamorphosis through Light , Divan Art Gallery, Jerusalem
- 1941: Helmar Lerski, 30 Years of Photographic Works , National Bezalel Museum, Jerusalem
- 1945: Helmar Lerski, Human Hands, Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv
- 1948: Helmar Lerski, Metamorphoses through Light, Museum of Decorative Arts, Zurich
- 1954: Subjective Photography 2 , State School for Arts and Crafts, Saarbrücken
- 1955: Photographies de Helmar Lerski, Musée de l'État, Luxembourg
- 1958: Helmar Lerski, Bruder Mensch , State Image Office, Hamburg
- 1961: Helmar Lerski, The Man My Brother, Paulskirche, Frankfurt / Main (further stations in 1962: Landeshaus, Münster; Stadttheater, Bremerhaven)
- 1971: Photo Eye of the 20's , George Eastman House, Rochester, New York
- 1980: Avantgarde Photography in Germany 1919-1939 , San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
- 1982: Helmar Lerski, photographer, Museum Folkwang, Essen
- 1987: Helmar Lerski, Metamorphose , Maison de la Culture, Amiens
- 1990: Helmar Lerski, Metamorphoses through Light 1936, Galerie Kicken-Pauseback, Cologne
- 1995: Helmar Lerski, Mission du Patrimoine Photographique, Hôtel Sully, Paris
- 2000: Helmar Lerski: Lichtbilder / Photographs, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
- 2003: Helmar Lerski 1871-1956: Métamorphoses par la lumière , Musées de Strasbourg, Strasbourg
- 2005: Helmar Lerski: Metamorphoses of the Face, Swiss Photo Foundation, Winterthur
- 2009: Helmar Lerski, The Man My Brother, Galerie Berinson, Berlin
- 2010: Helmar Lerski, Transformations Through Light , Ubu Gallery, New York
- 2015: Mixed Media (I). About Portrait , Kicken Berlin
- 2018: Helmar Lerski, pionnier de la lumière, Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme, Paris
Publications
- 1905: HL with EF Ruedebusch: Live love! , Berlin. Aphorisms. Drawing by Fidus.
- 1931: Everyday heads: Unknown people seen by Helmar Lerski: 80 photographs, with an introduction by Curt Glaser , Hermann Reckendorf, Berlin.
- 1953: I write with light . Essay.
posthumously:
- 1958: man - my brother: photos by Helmar Lerski text by Louis Fürnberg, Berthold Viertel u. Arnold Zweig (ed. By Anneliese Lerski), Verlag der Kunst, Dresden.
- 1982: Helmar Lerski, photographer (ed. By Ute Eskildsen, Jan-Christopher Horak ), Museum Folkwang, Essen. Exhibition catalog.
- 1982: Transformations through light. Metamorphosis Through Light (ed. By Ute Eskildsen), Luca Verlag, Freren.
- 2002: Florian Ebner: Metamorphoses of the Face: The 'Metamorphoses through Light' by Helmar Lerski , Siedl, Göttingen.
Filmography
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literature
- Ute Eskildsen: Lerski, Helmar. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 321 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Florian Ebner : Metamorphoses of the Face. The “Transformations through Light” by Helmar Lerski . Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 2002 ISBN 9783882438086
- Kay Less : 'In life, more is taken from you than given ...'. Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. S. 304 f., ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 (there place of birth Zurich, based on official documents)
Web links
- Helmar Lerski in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Lerski, Helmar. In: Sikart
Individual evidence
- ^ The wax museum , on: fil, portal.de
- ↑ The Holy Mountain , on: filmportal.de
- ↑ Baalam's Story , on: filmportal.de
- ↑ Ronny Loewy : adamah. Helmar Lerski's last film
- ^ Adamah , on: filmportal.de
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lerski, Helmar |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Schmuklerski, Israel (maiden name); Lerski, Hjalmar |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss photographer, cameraman and film director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 18, 1871 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Strasbourg |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 29, 1956 |
| Place of death | Zurich |