They wanted him to tell stories with his photographs. When I discovered it, I sneaked out pretending that something was wrong with my camera.Įisenstaedt was Jewish between the wars he emigrated to the United States and was hired by a new magazine called Life. that I at first forgot to put film in my camera. When I returned to Berlin there was an uproar, but they couldn’t fire me because I was still only a freelance. When I arrived I was so fascinated by the pageantry, watching King Ferdinand of Bulgaria trotting along with the longest nose in the world…I forgot all about the assignment and never took the picture of the groom and the bride. I had to go to Assisi to photograph the wedding of King Boris of Bulgaria to the youngest daughter of King Victor Emmanuel of Italy.
Many of his famous photographs are colored with humor and he was unafraid to laugh even at himself.
He approached every assignment with the enthusiasm and excitement of a child, as if it were his first. His coat pockets were reinforced to carry his heavy glass plates. Eisenstaedt traveled Europe carrying 240 pounds of equipment photographing crown princes and kings. Photojournalism was in its infancy back then. The idea of ph0tography was as new as flying…so I left the firm on the third of December, 1929, and became a professional. I want to do photography.” He looked at me as if I were going to cut my throat. “I know I am bad, because I am not really interested in selling buttons. One day my boss said to me, “Look, you are such a bad salesman.” Of course, I was still selling belts and buttons because I had to make a living.
#Bertrand russell alfred eisenstaedt professional#
“Goodness,” I said, “you get paid for pictures.” I had no idea that professional photography existed. I’ll give you three marks (about twelve dollars at that time). Finally, the editor of the weekly magazine Der Welt Spiegel said, “I like it. After the war he sold buttons and pursued his passion for photography. The Great War took the lives of all his comrades he was wounded and survived. Three years later he was drafted into the German army. That was his first encounter with photography. When he was fourteen one of his uncles gave him an Eastman Kodak Folding Camera No. I wish he had photographed me if he had, I would look at the image everyday just so I could know myself better.Įisenstaedt was born in Dirschau, West Prussia, 1898. It’s as though he bores right through their facades and deep into their essences. But whether or not his subjects notice him, his photographs always reveal inner secrets about them. His subjects go about life right in front of his lens, sometimes apparently without noticing his presence, other times stopping to peer directly at him. But there is more than humor that makes his work special. He himself radiated cheer and good will to everybody, and he had a knack for finding it in the world around him. Whenever I look through Alfred Eisenstaedt’s work I smile and step more lightly.
#Bertrand russell alfred eisenstaedt series#
~ one of a series of posts dedicated to icons in the field of photography ~
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