Pierre Gassmann (photographer)

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Pierre Gassmann (* 1913 [according to other sources 1914 ] in Breslau ; † July 5, 2004 in Paris ) is the founder of Picto and a famous photo lab technician ( printer ).

Life

Gassmann was born in Breslau in 1913, where his mother ran an X-ray laboratory. He began taking photos at the age of twelve and was influenced by artists such as Paul Klee , Oskar Kokoschka and László Moholy-Nagy , who were among his mother's circle of friends.

He began to study in Berlin but fled as a Jew and a Communist immediately after the seizure of power by the National Socialists to Paris in Montparnasse . There, along with numerous other artists, he met his future lover, Gerda Taro , and in 1935 the Hungarian Endre Friedmann; Friedmann, who now called himself Robert Capa , had an affair with Gerda Taro, but the friendship between Gassmann and Capa lasted until Capa's death.

Gassmann made his living as a "laboratory assistant", initially in the bathroom at home; Word of his skill in the photo laboratory quickly got around, although at that time there were no specialist laboratories : those who took photographs professionally developed their pictures themselves.

Not so, however, the Frenchman Henri Cartier-Bresson , who belonged to a new generation of photojournalists and had neither skill nor interest in laboratory work. Gassmann thus became Cartier-Bresson's right-hand man; His other well-known customers and sometimes friends have included u. a. Jacques-Henri Lartigue , André Kertész , Robert Doisneau , Martin Munkácsi , Robert Capa and Emmanuel Rudnitzky , better known as Man Ray .

In addition to his laboratory work, he took photos in Paris; when the Magnum Photos agency was founded in 1947 , he was one of the founding members. After the outbreak of war, Gassmann went into hiding and worked for the Resistance .

After the end of the war, Gassmann worked briefly as a photo reporter until he realized in 1949 that “everywhere he went, Robert Capa had been before him, and he had taken better pictures” (Michael Ebert in: The King of the Shadow Realm ). After that, he gave up photography and concentrated entirely on what he did best: the lab work.

In 1950 he therefore founded the first specialist laboratory in Europe, Picto ( Pictorial Service ), in the Rué de la Comète. Encouraged by the rapid success, he set up a rental studio, a concept that FC Gundlach later emulated with its Professional Photo Service (PPS) in Hamburg.

Gassmann and the Picto Laboratory gained an excellent reputation; Harper's Bazaar was there orders from overseas process, 1956-1978 presented Picto numerous prints for Photokina -Bilderschauen ago and Magnum Photos was Picto simply "our laboratory" . Picto now has 12 branches in France and one in South Africa (Cape Town).

Gassmann remained active until old age, worked in the laboratory and dealt with digital technology ; Around 1997 he bought an Apple Macintosh and was still learning digital image processing at the age of 84 : “With the serenity of the man who invented himself, he sat at the Mac, scanned and printed. Anachronistic behavior did not suit the pragmatist. The type of production was secondary, for him the result was what counted, the good picture - and that belonged to his whole passion ” (Michael Ebert in: The King of the Shadow Realm ).

Gassmann died in the summer of 2004 at the age of 91.

plant

In an interview in 1995, Pierre Gassmann explained his self-image: "The photographer is the composer, he writes the notes, and I am the conductor who interprets his score" .

With his own photographs, Gassmann never succeeded in stepping out of the shadows of Capa or Cartier-Bresson; With his high-quality prints , however, he shaped - almost from the background - what the public got to see from these photo artists: the enlargements of their pictures; For example, he made the authorized prints for Man Ray , which are shown in exhibitions today.

Exhibitions

  • 1997: "Pierre Gassmann - Interprète et photographe", Berlin Center for Photography (ZFF)

literature

  • Michael Ebert: The King of the Shadow Realm. On the death of Pierre Gassmann . In: Photonews 9/04: p. 7 (detailed obituary)
  • Pierre Gassmann, Rosalind Krauss and Caroline Elissagaray: Maurice Tabard . Paris, Contrejour 1987
  • Pierre Gassmann (Ed.): Atget: Voyages en Ville . Paris, 1979

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Visionary in the photo laboratory biography in the Berliner Zeitung
  2. ^ Biographical data on Pierre Gassmann
  3. ↑ Pierre Gassmann at Wissen.de
personal data
SURNAME Gassmann, Pierre
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Franco-German photographer and photo lab technician
DATE OF BIRTH 1913 or 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH July 5, 2004
Place of death Paris