1906 - 1999

Andreas Feininger, the son of the painter Lyonel Feininger, was born on December 27, 1906 in Paris. He went on to study cabinetmaking and architecture at the Bauhaus in Germany. In 1936 he gave up architecture and moved to Sweden where he studied photography. In order to escape WWII, Feininger moved to the U.S in 1939, and went on to join LIFE magazine in 1943, where he completed more than 430 assignments in a twenty-year span.

Feininger is best known for his skillful use of the telephoto lenses, which allowed to him to capture reality without distortion. Composition was extremely important to Feininger. Focusing on scale, perspective, light and pattern, Feininger created dramatic works. Some of his most acknowledged include the photojournalist and scenes of everyday New York activity.

Feininger has published several textbooks and picture books on photography that are now translated into several languages. Feininger's photographs are in many important collections including: The Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.; The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; The Museum of Modern Art, New York City, Victoria and Albert Museum of Art, London; The Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, Germany; The Museum of the City of New York, The New York Historical Society, and The International Center of Photography, New York City. He died in 1999, at the age of 92, leaving behind a great legacy.