Herbert Tobias (1924–1982) was the enfant terrible among the German photographers of the post-war period; In the fifties, he made a name for himself with glamorous fashion shots, becoming a star photographer within a very short time – and yet he always remained a non-conformist. In the mid sixties, he consciously abandoned this shining career. His name was forgotten, but his pictures remain well-known: portraits of the young Klaus Kinski, the singer Nico and Andreas Baader, shots of the ruined city of Berlin, seductive fashion photos, and erotic photographs of men. In 1982, when Tobias died in poverty at the age of 57, he left behind a multifaceted oeuvre that evades stylistic categorisation.

life

Herbert Tobias was a remarkable photographer, but an artist above all else. He used photography as an outlet for his desires and obsessions. His concern was not to fix visible reality using the camera, but to convey inner images and existential feelings, or to touch them in the viewer. The intensity with which Tobias staged the world and gave expression to his feeling for life stili comes across, even today. It lends his photographs an immediacy that is still tangible; a presence capable of transcending time.

exhibition

The artistic estate of Herbert Tobias is among the most important materials held by the Photographic Collection of the Berlinische Galerie. With around 150 exhibits, the artist’s impressive work will be presented in all its variety for the first time: beginning with the photographs Tobias took as a 19-year old soldier on the eastern front, including images from Paris and from his work in the Berlin years, and leading up to the erotic photographs of men that – in varying intensity – appear in all periods of his work.

Exhibition is organised by Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum für Moderne, Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur and is presented with Galerie Rudolfinum.

Curator: Ulrich Domröse