OTTO STAINERT – A BRIGHT REPRESENTATIVE OF GERMAN EXPERIMENTAL PHOTO

Otto Steinert is rightly considered one of the most famous European photographers of the twentieth century. He not only created many amazing, memorable photos, but also went down in history as a photo art theorist, author of original concepts.

Photographer Otto Steinert

Otto Steinert (Otto Steinert) was born in 1915 in Germany. He received a medical education and for a long time had an extensive medical practice, which, however, did not prevent him from practicing photography – first as an amateur, and eventually with a professional level.

The peak of his work came in the post-war period, when German photographers managed to attract the attention of the entire world community to their activities.

Photographer receptions

Otto Steinert gained fame as a photographer with an individual method and an unconventional vision of ordinary things. The creative work of the master is characterized by the use of a large number of unusual methods of photographing, which make his works original and memorable.

One of the favorite techniques is to show not just the appearance of the object or person, but also its temporal characteristic. The logo of the photographer is a clear image of trees that have been growing in one place for decades. The trunks look monumental, thoroughly, the author always emphasizes their natural power.

Photo by Otto Steinert

And vice versa, if a human figure gets into the frame, it can appear blurry, have a vague silhouette. Thus, the photographer demonstrated the transience of life, reminding people that they were not at all the rulers of Nature, but only her children.

In order to display the run of time, to make it physically tangible, Otto Steinert actively used long-exposure photography. To avoid shaking the camera during operation, he always installed it on a reliable tripod, which became the constant companion of the master.

“Subjective photography”

It is with this concept that most photography experts associate the name of Otto Steinert. The activity of the photographer began after the Second World War, and the peak of creativity came in the 50s – 60s of the 20th century.

Photographer Otto Steinert

Otto took an active part in the creation and functioning of several well-known groups of his time: “Photoform”, “Subjective Photography”, organized many exhibitions of modern photography.

Steinert’s activities were not only aimed at finding new ways and methods of photography. An important goal was the struggle against the alienation in which many German artists in the post-war period found themselves. Otto believed that taking photographs could be an effective means of bringing people closer, helping to withdraw from politics and re-establishing Germany’s cultural ties with the rest of the world.

The basic principle of subjective photography is the creation of pictures through the prism of the author’s perception. The emotional mood of the photographer plays a key role, it helps to show the objects of photography not as they look in reality, but as they seem to an outsider.

In the first place for Steinert there is not a realistic plot, but his aesthetics, therefore, when choosing an object for shooting, he was guided, first of all, by his own vision and personal preferences. Due to this, many works of the German photographer turned out to be so unearthly, surreal. Steinert created his own world, looking at the real through the lens of the camera.

Teaching

Otto Steinert successfully combined his creative search with active teaching. After graduating from medical practice and the transition to professional work in the field of photography Steinert taught at several art schools in Germany, in one of them even headed the faculty of photography.