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8/5/2007

Robert Lebeck

Flo Peters Gallery, Hamburg

Life's Work

On May 11th, the internationally renowned photographer Robert Lebeck received the Henri Nannen Prize, awarded by Gruner & Jahr and Stern magazine, for his life's work. In honor of his achievements, the Flo Peters Gallery, Hamburg, is showing a selection of 120 photographs taken between 1955 and 2000.

When Lebeck, born in 1929, was given a Retina 1A camera to his 23. birthday, he instantly began searching for motives. According to him, the camera's instruction manual was the only photographic education he received. Ten years later Lebeck was part of the elite of international photojournalism.

In 1952, he published his first pictures in the "Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung". He then spent thirty years working for the Stern as a photojournalist, significantly influencing the magazine's visual handwriting. When asked to comment on his talent and success, Lebeck simply likes to call himself "outrageously lucky". This phrase ("Unverschämtes Glück") also served as the title for his first publication of color photographs taken between 1960-2000.

The secrets of his success were calmness, perseverance, precision, discipline and the ability to do the right thing at the right time. Robert Lebeck likes to search for truth, has always been "curious of world" ("Neugierig auf Welt"), so also the title of his biography. He says he always worked without any extras, technical gimmicks or special lenses. Still, his "direct" photography is the result of a journalist's instinct combined with an artist's aesthetic composition. In this fashion, Lebeck repeatedly produced images that became symbols of their time.

Several of these have attained the status of icons:

In 1958, Lebeck photographed the young Elvis Presley in Friedberg, Hessen. The image of Presley in US Army gear still counts as one of the best portraits ever taken of Elvis. With his reportage "Africa in year zero, 1960", Lebeck was internationally recognized. His picture of a young African stealing King Baudouins epee at the festivities in honor of Congo's newly found independence went around the world. The image has turned into Lebeck's "business card".

The portrait of Jaqueline Kennedy and her sister Lee Radziwill at Robert Kennedy's coffin is world famous.

During his time at the Stern, Lebeck portrayed countless renowned personalities of world politics and culture, including Romy Schneider, Winston Churchill, Willy Brandt and Konrad Adenauer.

In 1991, Lebeck received the Dr.-Erich-Salomon-Preis from the German Photographic Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie).

On May 11th, 2007, Robert Lebeck was awarded the Henri Nannen Prize for his photographic life's work.

Robert Lebeck, also known for his photography collection, lives in Berlin with his wife and two children.

Flo Peters Gallery
Pumpen 8 - Hamburg

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