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Kurt Severin (July 31, 1902 – March 1984) was a German-born American photographer, journalist, and adventurer active from the 1930s to 1970s.


Early life

Kurt Severin was born in 1902 in
Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...
, Germany. While still in school he took up photography as a hobby. Instead of fulfilling his parents’ wishes that he become a painter, he left school early to start a career as a typewriter salesman. He did not get into photography until 1927 when he was in
Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...
as a special correspondent for the ''
Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung The ''Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung'', often abbreviated ''BIZ'', was a German weekly illustrated magazine published in Berlin from 1892 to 1945. It was the first mass-market German magazine and pioneered the format of the illustrated news magazine ...
''. Severin's photographs were at first distributed by the
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agency and then by Black Star, on which ''LIFE'' magazine depended for a large part of the approximately 200 photographs selected for publication each week which could not be supplied by the mere ten staff photographers it was employing at its peak in the 1950s. Bertram D. Wolfe in the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' of November 12, 1944, described him as “a photographer who first won a professional reputation by managing to click a camera just as a bullfighter got his pants torn off by a bull. Aided by this happy incident, he wandered as free-lance photographer for fifteen years through the cities, plains, jungles and mountains of Latin America.” ''Rotary'' magazine in 1958 also profiled him; “Kurt Severin, photographer…, paints, writes, and travels widely, especially in Central and South America. He lives in
Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
, Florida, a good departure point for trips southward.” His output was exhaustive and his travels from his base in Florida covered South and Central American countries
Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
,
Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...
,
Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
,
Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
,
Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
,
Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...
,
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
,
Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...
,
Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...
,
Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...
,
Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...
and the
Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
, and he also produced stories in
New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...
Quanchi, M. (2008). It's our turn to give orders: Walkabout's view of a nation in the making and other
Pacific islands The Pacific islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. They are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term ''Pacific Islands'' may refer to one of several ...
, and in
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.


A prodigious photojournalist

Severin was wide-ranging and adaptable, photographing subjects in combat and in jungle settings, but also comfortable covering stories on the elite students and staff of
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...
and the ‘coming out’ of a cotton magnate's daughter An inveterate adventurer, he professed that "I don't know fear. It is one thing I am not acquainted with.”’ He photographed the coffee port of Santos in Brazil in 1930; the
Chaco War The Chaco War (, coca Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. Coca leaves contain cocaine which acts as a mild stimulant when chewed or ...
-chewing
Andean The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long and wide (widest between 18°S ...
Indians'; the ’
Auslandsdeutsche The German diaspora (, ) consists of German people and their descendants who live outside of Germany. The term is used in particular to refer to the aspects of migration of German speakers from Central Europe to different countries around the w ...
' of Tovar a
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village in Venezuela (1934); extraction of rubber in Guatemala 1935 and its transport by Chicleros of the
rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...
of northern Guatemala over the Lago Peten Itza to
Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Administratively, it forms the largest island in the East Nusa Tenggara Province. The area is 14,250 km2. Including Komodo and Rinca islands ...
where the gum was processed; a
locust Locusts (derived from the Latin ''locusta'', locust or lobster) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstances they b ...
plague in Uruguay 1936; a feature on Ralph Cook Craig, winner of the sprint double at the
1912 Summer Olympics The 1912 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the V Olympiad () and commonly known as Stockholm 1912, were an international multi-sport event held in Stockholm, Sweden, between 6 July and 22 July 1912. The opening ceremony was he ...
, in his office in Albany, for ''Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung''’s special edition on the Olympics (1936); the river port of
Barranquilla Barranquilla () is the capital district of the Atlántico department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean region of Colombia, Caribbean coast region; as of 2018, it had a popul ...
at the Rio Magdalena (1938); and on
piranha A piranha (, or ; ) is any of a number of freshwater fish species in the subfamily Serrasalminae, of the family Serrasalmidae, in the order Characiformes. These fish inhabit South American rivers, floodplains, lakes and reservoirs. Although ...
s (1937).


1940s

Severin’s stories ranged from the comic to the tragic. In 1942 his humorous series showing chimpanzees sharing a milk bottle appeared in ''LOOK'', then in 1945 Severin photographed popular playwright and author
Stefan Zweig Stefan Zweig ( ; ; 28 November 1881 – 22 February 1942) was an Austrian writer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most widely translated and popular writers in the world. Zweig was raised in V ...
, who had lived in
Petrópolis Petrópolis (), also known as the Imperial City, is a municipality in the Southeast Region of Brazil. It is located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, northeast of the city of Rio de Janeiro. According to the 2022 Brazilian census, Petrópolis mun ...
near
Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
since 1940, on a bus and on the steps of the
New York Public Library Main Branch The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (commonly known as the Main Branch, the 42nd Street Library, or just the New York Public Library) is the flagship building in the New York Public Library system in the Midtown Manhattan, Midtown neighborhood ...
, only months before Zweig and his young wife poisoned themselves February 23, 1942. Other stories covered
Marajó Island Marajó () is a large coastal island in the state of Pará, Brazil. It is the main and largest of the islands in the Marajó Archipelago. Marajó Island is separated from the mainland by Marajó Bay, Pará River, smaller rivers (especially Mac ...
in Brazil and its cowboys; Peruvian workers demonstrating how the ancient
Incas The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The Inca civilisation rose fr ...
polished the large surfaces of their stone buildings, by hauling a rough boulder back and forth across the rock face; Panama (1945) and another feature on the “Architecture of the Prehistoric Civilization of the Andes in South America” with details of masonry; and a
matador A bullfighter or matador () is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. ''Torero'' () or ''toureiro'' (), both from Latin ''taurarius'', are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter, and describe all the performers in the activ ...
getting dressed with the help of an assistant (1945).


1950s

In the 1950s Severin illustrated, and also often wrote, general interest and travel stories and on
ethnographic Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...
and political subjects; on Pan American Grace Airways aircraft; the rarely witnessed puberty ceremony for a San Bias girl of the Cuna Indians; children 'rescued from Castro' by a Catholic welfare organisation at a refugee camp south of Miami waiting for resettlement in other cities; workers in
Curaçao Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela. Curaçao includ ...
making hats, one of the island's main trades; a
New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
marching band playing in the street during a carnival pageant in
Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...
; Costa Rican churchgoers; the city of
Arequipa Arequipa (; Aymara language, Aymara and ), also known by its nicknames of ''Ciudad Blanca'' (Spanish for "White City") and ''León del Sur'' (Spanish for "South's Lion"), is a city in Peru and the capital of the eponymous Arequipa (province), ...
in southern Peru; Naomi, the dancer at 'The Silver Slippers' club in Cuba; tourists queueing in Moscow's
Red Square Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', p=ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːɪtʲ) is one of the oldest and largest town square, squares in Moscow, Russia. It is located in Moscow's historic centre, along the eastern walls of ...
to enter the Mausoleum of Vladimir Ilich Lenin;
marimba The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...
making in Guatemala and traditional leather-tooled men's money bags in made in Colombia that were being adopted by American women; and water pots in Colombia. A curious and enthusiastic amateur zoologist, in 1957 Severin precipitated the myth that
cheetah The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large Felidae, cat and the Fastest animals, fastest land animal. It has a tawny to creamy white or pale buff fur that is marked with evenly spaced, solid black spots. The head is small and rounded, wit ...
s could reach 70 mph when he conducted a basic experiment using an upturned bicycle and some fishing line to pull along a meat-scented bag, clocking how long it took a cheetah to run 73-metre course. His results – showing cheetahs reaching speeds of 70 miles per hour - were soon accepted as scientific fact and only debunked in the 1970s. In 1955
Edward Steichen Edward Jean Steichen (; March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter and curator and a pioneer of fashion photography. His gown images for the magazine ''Art et Décoration'' in 1911 were the first modern ...
selected his picture of Colombian dancers for the section 'Dance' in the world-touring
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
exhibition ''
The Family of Man ''The Family of Man'' was an ambitious exhibition of 503 photographs from 68 countries curated by Edward Steichen, the director of the New York City Museum of Modern Art's (MoMA) department of photography. According to Steichen, the exhibitio ...
'' that was seen by 9 million visitors.


1960s to 1970s

In the 1960s Severin portrayed Mercury astronaut
Alan Shepard Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American astronaut. In 1961, he became the second person and the first American to travel into space and, in 1971, he became the List of Apollo astronauts#Apollo astr ...
in the
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
Control Room and other launch activities in July 1961; documented the
civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...
demonstrations with American singer
Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte ( ; born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927 – April 25, 2023) was an American singer, actor, and civil rights activist who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. Belafonte ...
addressing crowds at the
Lincoln Memorial The Lincoln Memorial is a List of national memorials of the United States, U.S. national memorial honoring Abraham Lincoln, the List of presidents of the United States, 16th president of the United States, located on the western end of the Nati ...
during the March on
Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...
, 1963; and photographed couples dancing the
rhumba Rhumba, also known as ballroom rumba, is a genre of ballroom music and ballroom dance, dance that appeared in the East Coast of the United States during the 1930s. It combined American big band music with Afro-Cuban rhythms, primarily the son cub ...
in a club in Cuba. In 1972 he was in New Guinea to record the Asaro ‘Mud Men’ for Australia's '' Walkabout'' magazine.Quanchi, Max (2009) 'The Waigani seminars and other talk-fests : looking back - and forward - in the Pacific Islands'. In: Pacific Science Association Inter-Congress, 2–6 March 2009, Tahiti, French Polynesia.


Publications

Publications to which Severin contributed pictures and writing, from the 1930s to the 1970s, ranged from the popular to the learned and included: ''LIFE'', '' LOOK'', the '' Foreign Service Journal'', the ''Rotarian'', ''Natural History:The Magazine of the American Museum of Natural History'', ''The Pacific Spectator'' (published for the Pacific Coast Committee for the Humanities of the
American Council of Learned Societies The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a private, nonprofit federation of 75 scholarly organizations in the humanities and related social sciences founded in 1919. It is best known for its fellowship competitions which provide a ra ...
by
Stanford University Press Stanford University Press (SUP) is the publishing house of Stanford University. It is one of the oldest academic presses in the United States and the first university press to be established on the West Coast. It is currently a member of the Ass ...
), ''
Travel Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical Location (geography), locations. Travel can be done by Pedestrian, foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without Baggage, luggage, a ...
'', ''
Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...
'', ''
National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...
'', ''Etnologiska Studier'', '' The Inter-American'', '' McLeans'', ''The Pan American'', ''
Popular Photography ''Popular Photography'', formerly known as ''Popular Photography & Imaging'', also called ''Pop Photo'', is a monthly American consumer website and former magazine that at one time had the largest circulation of any imaging magazine, with an edit ...
'', ''Minicam Photography'', ''
Lotería ''Lotería'' (Spanish word meaning "lottery") is a traditional Mexican board game of chance, similar to bingo, but played with a deck of cards instead of numbered balls. Each card has an image of an everyday object, its name, and a number, al ...
'', ''Revista Brasileira De Geografia'', ''Anuario De Estudios Americanos'', ''Walkabout''. He co-authored Severin contributed photographs to numbers of books, for example . Many of Severin's photographs are now distributed by
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. He features as a character in Berlin in the 1920s in the historical comic book
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
by
Jason Lutes Jason Lutes (born December 7, 1967) such as unit portraits for the open-source video game Battle for Wesnoth (2006), a map for ''Dominions 3: The Awakening'' (2006), and website illustration for ''City of Heroes'' (2005). References External l ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Severin, Kurt 20th-century American photographers 20th-century American journalists American male journalists 1902 births 1984 deaths German emigrants to the United States Immigrants to the United States American photojournalists People from Hanover Photographers from Lower Saxony