Annaliese Feininger Shares the Artistic Inspiration That Can Be Gained from the Work of Andreas Feininger

Andreas Feininger, born in Paris in 1906 and raised in Germany, was a prolific American photographer and a visual and technical pioneer. His body of work was well ahead of its time, and insights can be drawn from his artistic choices today.

Annaliese Feininger, a career photographer from Vancouver, BC, shares the inspiration that today’s photographers can draw from her late great-grandfather.

Biography

Andreas Feininger was educated at the Weimar Bauhaus, where he studied architecture. His interest in photography expanded throughout his university years, and he worked as a photographer and architect simultaneously after graduation. He became a member of Le Corbusier’s studio and then moved to Stockholm. He then started his own company taking industrial and architectural photographs.

When World War II broke out, Feininger moved to New York City, where he was a freelancer and worked for the United States government in the Office of War Information. He then became a staff photographer at LIFE Magazine from 1943 to 1962. After his work at LIFE was completed, he turned his attention to his artistic photography.

His photographs have been shown in exhibitions at the Museum of Natural History in New York, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the International Center for Photography, and the Smithsonian, among many other galleries and museums.

Feininger was also a technical pioneer, constructing four telephoto lenses for himself and three close-up cameras.

How Andreas Feininger Inspires Today

Andreas Feininger’s body of work contains many fascinating and sublime photos that can inspire young artists today. Annaliese Feininger explores the thematic characteristics of Andreas’ work and shows how current artists can use their ideas.

Architecture and Design

Feininger was concerned with showing the enduring beauty of the natural and manmade worlds. His aesthetics brought geometric perfection to natural objects and drew parallels between nature and architecture. See works: The Anatomy of Nature: How Function Shapes the Form and Design of Animate and Inanimate Structures Throughout the Universe (1956) by Andreas Feininger

Cityscapes

Feininger is well-known as a photographer of cityscapes, especially in New York City. His love for New York City is clear in all of his images of the area. His interest in architecture caused him to become fascinated with how cities are arranged and how their skylines correspond to natural scenes. His photo “Brooklyn Bridge bei Nacht” from 1945 contrasts the monumental bridge in shadow with the fog-shrouded and almost ethereal forms of the brightly lit skyscrapers behind it. See work: New York in the Fourties (1978) by Andreas Feininger and Andreas Feininger: That’s Photography by Andreas Feininger (2004)

Monumental Scale

Feininger’s photos frequently have a sense of monumental scale which creates sublime imagery. Using composition and lighting, he created imposing yet beautiful photos that captured the world’s vastness.

Lighting

Feininger liked to play with the aesthetics of lighting. His works frequently have buildings or objects silhouetted against a mid-tone background, contrasted by the lights from inside the buildings themselves. Specifically in his images of human subjects, it is evident that light and shadow play key roles in highlighting, contouring and providing depth to his portraits.

Realism

“Realism and super-realism are what I am after. This world is full of things the eye doesn’t see. The camera can see more, and often 10 times better.” — Andreas Feininger

Feininger was not interested in photography as an escape from the world around him. He was more concerned with capturing images that revealed details about the world as it is. He used macro photography and close-up shots to reveal hidden architectural and geometric details, making magic out of the everyday.

Environmental Impact

In Andreas Feininger’s photograph of the Signal Hill oil fields, he became involved with the architectural aspects of the oil derricks, wells, and rigs. He captured the environmental devastation that oil drilling causes. This was when environmental causes did not particularly move the American public, but he sought to impress this problem upon his viewers.

Technical Innovation

One of Feininger’s most enduring photos is a time-lapse shot depicting a helicopter with lights on its rotors. The shot shows exactly how the helicopter flies to its landing area, creating a unique shape in the sky. Feininger frequently worked with time-lapse subjects.

Unique Visions of Everyday Life

Feininger’s photographs are sometimes concerned with showing the viewer a unique spin on everyday life. He may be interested in the monumental shapes of clouds over an otherwise unremarkable landscape or city street, always searching for order and harmony in his photos.

Taking Inspiration From the Masters

Andreas Feininger was a master photographer, and it shows in his body of work. Annaliese Feininger wants photography enthusiasts to take inspiration from his work and further his artistic causes in today’s landscape. The development of natural and manmade landscapes shows a great deal of potential for creating a new photographic aesthetic based on Feininger’s work.

Photographers should study the work of Andreas Feininger for inspiration in composition, lighting, cityscapes, and realism, among many other components. Investigating how Andreas Feininger saw the world would be beneficial to any artist interested in broadening their photographic perspective.