Lot 14 D

There are only very few portraits in Andreas Feininger's œuvre. In fact, it is the themes of the metropolis and of nature that interested him as a photographer and occupied him professionally. He worked for the Life magazine as a photojournalist for over two decades. Nontheless, it is this portrait, The Photojournalist, which is regarded as Feininger's masterpiece and as THE photographer's portrait of the 20th century, considering the choice of images in numerous compilations and standard works on twentieth century photography.
The picture was taken in connection with a group of pictures showing representatives of different professional groups, mostly taken frontally and in close-up and provided with typical occupational attributes. Most of the anonymous portraits are studio shots. The respective instrument becomes part of the face and covers the view of the eyes like a mask or a disguise: there is a doctor and his headlamp, a pilot and his mouthguard, a racing driver and his helmet, the fencer and his visor. A self-portrait of Feininger, showing the artist sitting behind a large magnifying glass, is also among these pictures. And there is the very photojournalist who looks through his Leica camera turned to the position of portrait format. The depicted person - his twenty-year younger colleague Dennis Stock - stands out from the background as a dark silhouette as if cut-out. Only the precise circle of a spotlight shines brightly in the central area of the face, where the Leica camera - a precision mechanical device, status symbol, and the most important professional requisite of the photojournalist at the time - replaces the eye and nose of the person portrayed. The lens and the attached rangefinder not only cover the eyes, they literally replace them, similar to a futuristic sculpture.
The fact that the picture became the photographer portrait of the 20th century is explained by the suggestive energy it emanates. The picture is a symbol of optimism for the future and enthusiasm for technology and at the same time exaggerates the profession of photojournalists into an objective, purely documentary and thus incorruptible authority.