Andreas Feininger

Bonni Benrubi Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above in 1998 by the present owner

"Andreas Feininger: Early Work," Center for Creative Photography: The Archive, Research Series, March 1983, No. 17, cover

Thomas Buchsteiner and Otto Letze, Andreas Feininger: That’s Photography (Verlag, 2004), p. 50

Scholar Stuart Alexander calls this image a 'metaphor' for Andreas Feininger's career in photography: "Feininger, who has both used and portrayed technology throughout his life, appears as a half-man/half-machine, his face merged with radio equipment. Made in his first year as a serious amateur photographer, it shows how rapidly he had assimilated a close and positive identification with technology" (The Archive, pp. 7-8).

Born in Paris in 1906, Andreas was the first child of painter Lyonel Feininger and older brother of T. Lux Feininger (see Lots 5, 8, and 9). In the 1920s, Andreas studied at the Bauhaus—where his father was an instructor—, initially interested in cabinet-making and architecture before turning to photography. In 1929, just two years after this early experimental self-portrait was made, six of his photographs were shown at Film und Foto.  Early prints from this period, such as the photograph offered here, are rare.