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Helmut Erich Robert Kuno Gernsheim (1 March 1913 – 20 July 1995) was a historian of
photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is emplo ...
, a collector and a photographer.


Early life and education

Born in
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...
, Germany, he was the third son of the academic librarian Karl Gernsheim and his wife Hermine Scholz. He studied
art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, ...
at the
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...
. He took up photography in 1934 at the urging of his brother, :de:Walter Gernsheim, who thought it a more practical profession for someone from a partially Jewish background who intended to leave Nazi Germany. He graduated from the State School of Photography, Munich, after two years' study. Beginning in the late 1930s, he made commercial work, some in colour using the German Uvachrome process, before going to Paris for an exhibition of his work and then to London to work on commissions from the
National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...
, for
Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
and the shipping line P&O.


Second World War

At the outset of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, Gernsheim was deported to
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
on the HMT ''Dunera'' and interned as a "friendly enemy alien" for a year at Hay in
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
, along with other German nationals including the artist
Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack (11 July 1893, in Frankfurt-am-Main – 7 January 1965, in Allambie Heights, in Sydney) was a German-born Australian artist. His formative education was 1912–1914 at Debschitz art school in Munich. He studied at the ...
of the Bauhaus, Heinz Henghes (sculptor),
Hein Heckroth Hein Heckroth (14 April 1901 in Gießen - 7 July 1970 in Amsterdam) was a German art director of stage and film productions. Heckroth began his career working with the German national ballet. Later, he moved to Great Britain and, after designing ...
(film and stage designer), George Teltscher (graphic artist), Klaus Friedeberger (painter), tenor
Erich Liffmann Erich Liffmann (born 22 September 1914 Herrath, Germany, died 11 June 1987 Elwood, Victoria, Australia) was a classically trained musician. Germany Liffman began his working career as a sign writer in Germany. He was "discovered" when overhea ...
, the composer Ray Martin, the artist Johannes Koelz, the photographers Henry Talbot and Hans Axel, the art historians Franz Phillipp and
Ernst Kitzinger Ernst Kitzinger (December 27, 1912 – January 22, 2003) was a German-American historian of late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine art. Biography Kitzinger was born into a well-educated Jewish family in Munich; his father, Wilhelm Natha ...
, the author Ulrich Boschwitz, the furniture designers
Fred Lowen Fred Lowen AM (1919–2005), born Fritz Karl Heinz Lowenstein, was a German-Australian designer and an inductee into the Design Institute of Australia Hall of Fame. Biography Lowen was born as Fritz Karl Heinz Loewenstein in 1919 in Upper Siles ...
and Ernst Roedeck, and Erwin Fabian (sculptor). While interned, he lectured other internees on the aesthetics of photography and wrote his critique on photography, ''New Photo Vision'', which was published in 1942 and led to his becoming a friend of the fellow critic and historian
Beaumont Newhall Beaumont Newhall (June 22, 1908 – February 26, 1993) was an American curator, art historian, writer, photographer, and the second director of the George Eastman Museum. His book ''The History of Photography'' remains one of the most signifi ...
. Gernsheim earned his release from internment by volunteering to work for the
National Buildings Record The Historic England Archive is the public archive of Historic England, located in The Engine House on Fire Fly Avenue in Swindon, formerly part of the Swindon Works of the Great Western Railway. It is a public archive of architectural and arch ...
, returning to London in 1942 to photograph important monuments with a view to revealing their artistic merits. These photographs became the basis of two more books. They were praised by critics including
Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television ...
and
Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, '' The Buildings of England'' ...
and in 1943 were described by ''The Architectural Review'' as "nothing short of a rediscovery of the Baroque monuments".Paul Hill and Thomas Cooper, ''Dialogue With Photography'', publ. Thames & Hudson 1979 Around this time, he won a coveted position with the
Warburg Institute The Warburg Institute is a research institution associated with the University of London in central London, England. A member of the School of Advanced Study, its focus is the study of cultural history and the role of images in culture – cro ...
as the chief photographer for the London area. He joined The
Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...
in 1940 became a Fellow (FRPS) in 1942. He met his future wife, Alison, in 1938 and, after she and her first husband, Blen Williams, divorced, they set up home together in 1942 and married at the end of the war. Gernsheim was granted British citizenship in 1946 and continued to live in London for most of his life.


Photo collector and historian

Though having studied art history, Gernsheim's inclination toward a specialisation in photography history came from having been a photographer himself. In 1945, at Beaumont Newhall's prompting, Helmut and Alison Gernsheim started collecting the works of historic photographers, especially British ones, which were disappearing. They amassed a huge collection containing work by Julia Margaret Cameron,
Alvin Langdon Coburn Alvin Langdon Coburn (June 11, 1882 – November 23, 1966) was an early 20th-century photographer who became a key figure in the development of American pictorialism. He became the first major photographer to emphasize the visual potential of el ...
,
Hill A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally considered to be not a ...
& Adamson, William Henry Fox Talbot and
Louis Daguerre Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre ( , ; 18 November 1787 – 10 July 1851) was a French artist and photographer, recognized for his invention of the eponymous daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as one of the fathers of photog ...
. They rediscovered the long-lost hobby of
Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...
when, in 1947, Gernsheim stumbled across an album of Carroll's portraits in a junk shop.


''The History of Photography''

Ultimately this collection, along with an estimated 3–4 million words of notes on the subject, led to his writing the 180,000-word book ''The History of Photography''. When the first edition was published by the
OUP Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
in 1955 it became an instant classic and the definitive reference work for historians of photography for decades afterwards, being described by Beaumont Newhall as "a milestone in the history of photography" and by other reviewers as "the photographer's bible" and "an encyclopaedic work". The Gernsheims continued to publish numerous articles and books on various aspects of photography and a variety of photographers (see Publications below) and often in collaboration, for instance, in 1966, working with
Alvin Langdon Coburn Alvin Langdon Coburn (June 11, 1882 – November 23, 1966) was an early 20th-century photographer who became a key figure in the development of American pictorialism. He became the first major photographer to emphasize the visual potential of el ...
to complete an autobiography, and in 1983 with Bill Jay on ''Photographers Photographed''


The first photograph

Along the way, in 1952 Gernsheim rediscovered the long-lost world's first surviving permanent photograph from nature, created by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1827 (''
View from the Window at Le Gras ''View from the Window at Le Gras'' is a heliographic image and the oldest surviving camera photograph. It was created by French inventor Nicéphore Niépce in 1827 in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France, and shows parts of the buildings and surroun ...
'').


Later life, death

Alison Gernsheim died on 27 March 1969 and Helmut Gernsheim remarried in 1971 to Irène Guénin. He continued a positive interest in photography, vigorously supporting the establishment of photographic galleries and museums in the USA and Britain, including
The Photographers' Gallery The Photographers' Gallery was founded in London by Sue Davies opening on 14 January 1971, as the first public gallery in the United Kingdom devoted solely to photography. It is also home to the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, established ...
under Sue Davies in 1971 and the National Museum of Photography Film and Television under Colin Ford in 1983. Helmut Gernsheim died on 20 July 1995.


Legacy

Ultimately, Gernsheim needed to find a home for his vast collection of over 33,000 photographs, 4,000 books, research notes, his own correspondence, and collected correspondence including letters by Daguerre and Fox Talbot. He sought unsuccessfully to found a national museum of photography in the UK (ultimately a National Museum did not happen until 1983). In the end, after many fruitless discussions with authorities and potential sponsors in several countries, he sold everything to the University of Texas at Austin in 1963 where it formed the basis of a new Department of Photography at the Humanities Research Center. His collection of modern photography was retained by him and ultimately passed to the Forum Internationale Photographie (FIP) at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim. In 1965 the exhibition, ''Helmut Gernsheim's Duplicate Collection Classic Camera,'' also incorporating Professor Helmer Bäckström's historical collection acquired in 1964, became the foundation of Sweden's Fotografiska Museet formally established in 1971. Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany, a division of the Museum of Modern Art, is one of Germany's most important collections of photographs, begun after its first exhibition of photographs from Gernsheim's collection surveying over 100 years of photography, and following which Otto Steinert purchased works by portrait photographer Hugo Erfurth and the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) photographs of Albert Renger-Patzsch augmenting images from pioneers of photography David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson he had acquired in 1961. Ten years later, the Museum contained nearly 4,000 photographs. Photographs attributed to Gernsheim are held in the
Conway Library The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist c ...
at
The Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...
whose archive, primarily of architectural images, is being digitised under the wider Courtauld connects project.


Honors and awards

*1959: The Kulturpreis (Cultural Award) from the German Society for Photography (DGPh), with Robert JankerThe Cultural Award of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie (DGPh)
. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie e.V.. Accessed 7 March 2017.
*1968: appointed consultant to
Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...
*1975: elected to the Committee, Fondation pour la Photographie Suisse *1976: elected to the advisory committee of the journal
History of Photography The history of photography began in remote antiquity with the discovery of two critical principles: camera obscura image projection and the observation that some substances are visibly altered by exposure to light. There are no artifacts or de ...
*1979: Distinguished Visiting Professor at the
University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
Helmut and Alison Gernsheim: An Inventory of Their Papers at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas
/ref> *1980: Academician and Gold Medal of the Academia Italia delle Arti, Salsomaggiore *1980: Honorary Member of the Daguerre Club, Frankfurt. *1981: Distinguished Visiting Professor at
University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first ...
*Honorary Fellow of the Photographic Historical Society of New York *Honorary Fellow of the Club Daguerre,
Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...
*In 2002 Gernsheim was posthumously inducted into the
International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum The International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in St. Louis, Missouri honors those who have made great contributions to the field of photography. History In 1977 the first Hall of Fame and Museum opened in Santa Barbara, California and ...
.


Publications


''The history men: Helmut Gernsheim and Nicéphore Niépce'' 2013 Graham Harrison ''Photo Histories''
* ''Alvin Langdon Coburn: Photographer'', with Alison Gernsheim, New York: Praeger, 1966. * ''Beautiful London'', New York: Phaidon, 1950. (photographs by Helmut Gernsheim) *''Churchill: His Life in Photographs'', Helmut Gernsheim and Randolph S. Churchill, eds., London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1955. *''A Concise History of Photography'', with Alison Gernsheim, The World of Art Library series. London: Thames & Hudson, 1965. * ''Creative Photography: Aesthetic Trends 1839–1960'', London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1962. *''Edward VII and Queen Alexandra: A Biography in Word and Picture'', with Alison Gernsheim, London: Frederick Muller, 1962. * ''Focus on Architecture and Sculpture, an original approach to the photography of architecture and sculpture'', London: Fountain Press, 1949. *''Fotografia Artistica: Tendinte Estetice 1839–1960'', Bucuresti: Editura Meridiane 1970. *''Historic Events 1839–1939'', with Alison Gernsheim, London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1960. * ''The History of Photography From the Earliest Use of the Camera Obscura in the Eleventh Century up to 1914'' with Alison Gernsheim, London: Oxford University Press 1955; revised edition Thames & Hudson. 1969 *''Incunabula of British Photographic Literature: A Bibliography of British Photographic Literature 1839–75 and British Books Illustrated with Original Photographs'', London and Berkeley: Scolar Press in association with Derbyshire College of Higher Education 1984. * ''Julia Margaret Cameron; her life and photographic work'', London: Fountain Press, 1948. *''L. J. M. Daguerre. The History of the Diorama and the Daguerreotype'', with Alison Gernsheim, London: Secker & Warburg, 1956. (With “Bibliography of Daguerre's Instruction Manuals” by Beaumont Newhall.) * ''Lewis Carroll, photographer'', London: Max Parrish, 1949. *''The Man Behind the Camera'', Helmut Gernsheim, ed. London: Fountain Press ovember1948 (foreword by Rathbone Holme). (With chapters on
Cecil Beaton Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as an Oscar–winning stage and costume designer for films and the t ...
, Gernsheim, E.O. Hoppé,
Angus McBean Angus Rowland McBean (8 June 1904 – 9 June 1990) was a Welsh photographer, set designer and cult figure associated with surrealism. Early life Angus Rowland McBean was born in Newbridge, Monmouthshire, Wales on 8 June 1904, elder child and o ...
, Felix H. Man, Mrs. K.M. Parsons, W. Suchitzky, Harold White, and
J. Allan Cash James Allan Johnstone Cash, F.R.P.S, F.I.B.P (1902 in Bucklow, Cheshire – 14 February 1974) Biography Cash was a radio engineer before becoming a photographer and writer. Having had a love for travelling since he was young, at 23 years old h ...
.) * ''Masterpieces of Victorian Photography'', London: Phaidon Press, 1951. * ''The New Photo Vision'', London: Fountain Press, 1942. * ''The Origins of Photography'', New York: Thames & Hudson, 1982. *''The Recording Eye. A Hundred Years of Great Events as Seen by the Camera, 1839–1939'', with Alison Gernsheim, New York: Putnam, 1960. *''Roger Fenton, Photographer of the Crimean War. His Photographs and his Letters from The Crimea'', with Alison Gernsheim, London: Secker & Warburg, 1954. *''Those Impossible English'', with Alison Gernsheim, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1952. (text: Quentin Bell; photographs selected by Helmut and Alison Gernsheim). *''Victoria R. A Biography with Four Hundred Illustrations based on her Personal Photograph Albums'', with Alison Gernsheim, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1959. *


References


External links


New York Times obituary
Accessed 6 June 2011.
The history men: Helmut Gernsheim and Nicéphore Niépce on Photo Histories
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gernsheim, Helmut 1913 births 1995 deaths Photography academics Photography critics Photographers from Munich Photographers from London Historians of photography 20th-century English historians World War II civilian prisoners German emigrants to the United Kingdom