| In celebration of Magnum in May, Silverstein Photography is pleased to present the work of Swiss photographer Werner Bischof, one of the great photojournalists of the mid-twentieth century. WERNER BISCHOF: A RETROSPECTIVE, opening March 18, will include more than thirty vintage and non vintage photographs - most of which come directly from the artist's estate and have never been displayed to the public before. Bischof's work has been featured in publications such as Du, Life and Paris Match and continues to influence photographers today. The artist joined the world famous photographers group Magnum Photos in 1949, where his work and personal integrity have helped shape the values and ethics behind this legendary organization. WERNER BISCHOF: A RETROSPECTIVE marks the 50th anniversary of the loss of Werner Bischof (he died shortly after his 38th birthday in a car accident in Peña de Aguila in the Andes) and follows the landmark exhibition "Werner Bischof Photographs: 1932-1954" held at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts this February, 2004.
Born in Zürich, Switzerland, on April 26, 1916, Werner Bischof began his artistic studies attending drawing courses at the Normal School of Schiers. One year later, he enrolled in the School of Art of Zurich, where he studied under the tutelage of Hans Finsler. Mr. Finsler concentrated on "New Objectivity", an approach to photography in which the close-up served as the objective presentation of fact, drawing analogies between man made objects and natural form. Bischof's early body of work exudes crisp details, strong design elements, great attention to geometric forms and is also where his humanism is first revealed. For example, his photograph of the carved scroll of a violin (Carved Scroll, Zhurich, 1932) recalls the turnings of a nautilus shell.
In 1936, Bischof opened a photography and advertising studio which he had to abandon three years later, due to mandatory military service in the Swiss Army. Following his term in the army, Bischof documented scenes of the devastation and aftermath of World War II in Europe. In 1949, after joining Magnum, Bischof continued to focus this work on what he called the "face of human suffering" in which his photo-journalistic images are imbued with the humanistic social documentary tradition established by Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, and the Farm Security Administration photographers. One of his most well-known photo-essays, "Famine in India", was published in Life magazine the same year. During his lifetime, Bischof also completed assignments in Korea, Okinawa and Japan. He covered the stories of refugees from Mao's China and the war in Indochina. Bischof's numerous landmark photo essays in such publications as Life and the Swiss periodical DU have established him as an accomplished journalist indeed, but his highly refined aesthetic, his photographs, are the ultimate legacy of his artistic genius. Bischof died in May 1954, at the age of thirty-eight, while on assignment for Magnum and Life magazine.
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