Erich Salomon

(German, 1886-1944)

Erich Salomon is generally regarded as the first modern photojournalist. Armed with his Leica, which he kept hidden in his briefcase, he caught statesmen and celebrities in casual poses at unguarded moments.

Born to a Jewish family in Berlin, Salomon was a lawyer by training and a self-taught photographer. In 1928, the Berliner Illustriete Zeitung stunned viewers when it printed his candid shots of world leaders. Three years later, in its first year of publication, Fortune magazine followed suit. Salomon was so well known for his skill at infiltrating high-level European conferences that Aristide Briand, Premier of France once commented that a meeting would not be deemed important unless Salomon was there. During WWII Salomon was forced into hiding but was discovered and sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz where he died in 1944.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2000

Erich Salomon, Gallery 292, New York

1986

Erich Salomon: Leice Fotografie 1930-1939 Ausstellung in der Berlinischen Galerie, Berlin
Travelled to International Center of Photography, New York

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2008

Newton Foundation, Berlin "Pigozzi and the Paparazzi"

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1986

Erich Salomon: Leica Fotografie 1930-1939.
Berlinische Gallerie, Fotografische Sammlung. Schirmel/Mosel: 1986. Catalogue accompanying exhibition at Ausstellung in der Berlinischen Galerie, Berlin.

1983

Erich Salomon: Aus Dem Leben Eines Fotografen 1886-1944.
Museumspädagogischer Dienst Berlin. Berlinischen Galerie, Berlin. (catalogue)

1978

Erich Salomon. Delpire, Robert. Aperture, Millerton, New York.

1931

Erich Salomon. Beruhmte Zeitgenossen in unbewachten Augenblicken
(Celebrated Contemporaries in Unguarded Moments).
Stuttgart J. Engelhorns, Berlin.