Structures of Nature: Photographs by Andreas Feininger
By Schlatter, Elizabeth '89

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Born in Paris and raised in Germany, Andreas Feininger (1906-1999) was the son of American artist and Bauhaus teacher Lyonel Feininger. By the 1920s, the younger Feininger had already established several stylistic traits in his photographic work, such as monumentalized subject matter and emphasis on texture and line. His nature photographs tend to reveal patterns in animal and plant forms as found in the backbones of a snake or veins in a leaf. After immigrating to America in 1939, Feininger completed almost 350 photographic essays for Life magazine between 1943 and 1962. In addition he published numerous books on photographic theory and technique and his photographs were included in the Museum of Modern Art exhibition "The Family of Man."

Structures of Nature presents a selection of Feininger's stunning nature photography. An essay by N. Elizabeth Schlatter considers his work in the context of German photography between the two world wars and in comparison with his American contemporaries.

Printed with permission of Elizabeth Schlatter.