(b. Hamburg, Germany, 1903; d. Munich, Germany, 1975)
Born into a prosperous merchant family in Hamburg, Germany, Herbert List began as an apprentice in 1921 at his father's company as a Heidelberg coffee dealer. At that time, he was also studying literature and art history at Heidelberg University. From 1924 to 1928 List photographed his travels for his father's coffee company.
In 1930 List was introduced to Andreas Feininger because of his connections to the European avant-garde and his education. Feininger introduced him to the Rolleiflex, a more sophisticated camera facilitating deliberate composition of his images. Under the binary influence of the Surrealist movement and Bauhaus art, List started to develop his own style by photographing still life images and friends. Inspired by ideas of Romanticism he described his images as being composed visions where his arrangements try to capture the subliminal essence inhabiting and animating the world of appearances.
