Francis Reiss (1927 – 4 December 2017) was an Australian photographer, born to Danish parents in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. He was best known for his work for ''

Picture Post ''Picture Post'' was a photojournalistic magazine published in the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1957. It is considered a pioneering example of photojournalism and was an immediate success, selling 1,000,000 copies a week after only two months. ...

'' and ''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'' magazines.

Early life

Reiss was born in 1927 in

, Germany to Danish parents. He began taking photos as a child. The family moved to the United Kingdom in 1936. There he attended

Oundle School Oundle School is a public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging boarding school, boarding and day school) for pupils 11–18 situated in the market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire ...

, and began taking photos.

Career and death

Reiss began working for ''Picture Post'' magazine in the UK at the age of 17, the youngest staff photographer employed by them. ''Picture Post'' published over 60 picture stories by him. In 1947, Reiss sailed for New York and immediately started working for ''LIFE'' magazine. In 1950, realising he had gone stale, Reiss quit photography, and entered the wool trade. Not until 1993, ten years after migrating to Australia and receiving a chance commission from

James Mollison James Mollison (20 March 1931 – 19 January 2020) was acting director of the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) from 1971 to 1977 and director from 1977 to 1989. He was director of the National Gallery of Victoria from 1989 to 1995. Ea ...

did he return to photography. Reiss died on 4 December 2017 at the age of 90.

Collections

His works are held in a number of collections: *

State Library of Victoria State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in th ...

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

National Portrait Gallery (Australia) The National Portrait Gallery, also known as the National Portrait Gallery of Australia (NGA or NPGA) in Canberra is a public art gallery containing portraits of prominent Australians. It was established in 1998 and moved to its present buildin ...

Jewish Museum of Australia The Jewish Museum of Australia, not to be confused with the Sydney Jewish Museum, aims to "explore and share the Jewish experience in Australia". It is located in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne. History The Jewish Museum of Australia was estab ...

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...

Monash Gallery of Art The City of Monash is a Local government areas of Victoria, local government area in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne with an area of 81.5 square kilometres and a population of 200,077 people in 2016. Hi ...

Mitchell Library (Australia) The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establish ...

Heide Museum of Modern Art The Heide Museum of Modern Art, also known as Heide, is an art museum in Bulleen, Victoria, Bulleen, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Established in 1981, the museum exhibits modern art, modern and contemporary a ...

City of Whitehorse The City of Whitehorse is a Local government areas of Victoria, local government area in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It has an area of and an estimated residential population of 183,462 as o ...

art collection

Exhibitions

His work has been exhibited at a number of galleries in Australia, including one-man shows at: * Bendigo Art Gallery *

* Whitehorse Art Space and in group exhibitions at: *

Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London, England, and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings a ...

Publications

His work has appeared in the following publications: * ''Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology'' * '' Overland'' magazine * '' Bystander'' magazine

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reiss, Francis English photojournalists Australian photojournalists Picture Post photojournalists English people of Danish descent Australian people of Danish descent People educated at Oundle School British emigrants to Australia 1927 births 2017 deaths