Henri Cartier-Bresson, Oscar Niemayer, Martin Luther King, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Louis Armstrong, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Ray Bradbury, Pelé, Robert Kennedy, Duke Ellington, Ingrid Bergman, Miles Davis, Leonard Bernstein, Cornell Capa, Carmen Amaya, Adlai Stevenson, Franz Beckenbauer, Rod Steiger, Pau Casals, Pablo Neruda, Nat King Cole, Sir Thomas Beecham, Dwight Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, Erich Leinsdorf, Fidel Castro, B.B. King, Norman Mailer, Jorge Luis Borges, Claire Yaffa, Friedrich Gulda ... are only some of the highly comprehensive assortment of personalities of politics, arts, sports, literature, science, etc, photographed by Lisl Steiner, born in 1927 in Vienna (Austria), during sixty-three years (52 of them based in New York) of intense activity as a photojournalist working for such top class publications like Life, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, Keystone Press Agency, O Cruzeiro and others, having also been featured in the number 2/2000 of the legendary magazine Leica World, as well as having worked in a vast range of TV productions for NBC and PBS, while a number of photographic exhibitions with pictures made by her have been held worldwide.
Henri Cartier-Bresson waiting for Fidel Castro in a New York street. 1961
Burial of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Arlington Cemetery. November 25th, 1963. Charles de Gaulle (President of France) and Haile Selassie (Emperor of Ethiopia) are clearly visible in the middle of the image. Ludwig Erhard (Chancellor of West Germany) is behind Haile Selassie, while on his right appear Macapagal-Arroyo (President of Philippines) and Chung Hee Park (President of South Korea).
Just beyond the United States flag are Hayato Ikeda (Prime Minister of Japan) and Herbert Charles Hoover Jr, son of the 31st President of the United States Herbert Clark Hoover(who couldn´t attend the funeral because of illness).
King Baudoin I of Belgium is in the middle far right of the photograph, and in front of him him are the Queen Frederika of Greece and Senator Edward Kennedy.
Jacqueline Kennedy is the woman with mourning black attire and veil nearest to the camera, and the man by her on the right is Attorney General Robert Kennedy.
220 dignitaries from 92 countries were present at the state funeral.
Oscar Niemayer in Brasilia. 1957
Lisl Steiner with Kodak Tri-X 400, the black and white film with which she and many other photojournalists made their career, thanks to its high speed, great versatility in darkroom, acutance and remarkable image aesthetics.
Leica M2 given away to Lisl Steiner by Nat Fein, winner of the 1949 Photojournalism Pulitzer Prize. She has used it for decades with Summicron DR 50 mm f/2, Summilux-M 35 mm f/1.4 and Super Angulon-M 21 mm f/3.4.
Leica M5, used by Lisl Steiner with Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 and Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 Version 3.
Leica M6, used by Lisl Steiner with Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 Version 4.
Leica M7 with scalloped Tele-Elmarit-M 90 mm f/2.8
Martin Luther King. Miami.1965
Friedrich Gulda. 1949
Miles Davis on stage playing the trumpet. New York Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center. February 12th, 1964.
Lisl Steiner inside the legendary ground floor café of the Algolquin Hotel, located in 59 West 44th Street of New York, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, and deemed one of America´s Ten Great Historic Hotels, with an antiquity of 100 years (it was built in 1902).
It has been since then a usual meeting venue of famous actors and actresses (Douglas Fairbanks Sr, John Barrymore, Helen Hayes, Erica Jones ... ), Nobel Prize laureates (Derek Walcott, Sinclair Lewis, William Faulkner ... ) , writers (Gertrude Stein, Simone de Beauvoir, Maya Angelou ... ), all kind of artists, photographers, etc, and one of the most significant cultural hubs in New York City history.
That unique environment of talkings and inspiration spawned the creation of The New Yorker magazine, after which the gatherings kept on from sixties to nowadays.
It has been a usual rendezvous and conversation location of Lisl for many decades in Midtown Manhattan.
Lisl Steiner sitting in the café of The Algolquin Hotel holding the Leica D-Lux 5 Titanium Special Edition (featuring a 1/1.63" CCD, a very fast D.C Vario-Summicron 5.1-19.2 mm f/2-3.3 ASPH zoom lens - equivalent to a focal length range of 24-90 mm in 35 mm format-, O.I.S Image Stabilization and a 3" LCD screen) camera given away to her by Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board and owner of Leica Camera AG.
Shoeshine boys in Copacabana beach, Rio do Janeiro (Brazil). 1957. They had no childhood and Lisl was with their mothers, who lived in favelas and were prostitutes. Image belonging to her Children of the Americas Project.
Children playing in the countryside in San Salvador area (El Salvador). This picture was taken by Lisl just after leaving a plane and walking around fifty meters by a makeshift airstrip. It was one of the first images of her Children of the Americas Project, and amazingly, some years later, she found the same nine persons right there
Naked child walking on manufactured hats left to dry in the sun in the village of Limpio (Paraguay). Image belonging to Lisl Steiner´s Children of the Americas Project.
Lisl Steiner by the entrance door of New York Leica Gallery at 670 Broadway, where there was a Photographic Retrospective Exhibition of her most remarkable images between May 26th and June 24th, 2000 (one year after the one held in Johannes Faber Gallery of Vienna with a selection of Lisl´s photographs), who was visited among others by Leonard Freed, Cornell Capa and the outstanding Leica scholar and great photojournalist based in Philadelphia Sal DiMarco, Jr.
The Leica gallery has been run in partnership with Leica Camera since 1994 and has become a flagship of both traditional and modern photojournalism exhibitions, being located in a historic village in Greenwich Village, where its directors Rose A. Deutsch and Jay R. Deutsch have made a praiseworthy labour since mid nineties.
Alfred Eisenstaedt working inside the United Nations Building in New York. 1961
Lisl Steiner inside her home at Pound Ridge (New York) holding a print of the picture she took President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (second man from the right) on September 26, 1961 at a quarter to nine in the morning in the Suite of the Hotel Carlyle of New York during the meeting he had with Arturo Frondizi, President of Argentina (the man wearing black glasses and shaking hands with him).
On far left of the image is Dean Rusk (United States Secretary of State), while Miguel Angel Cárcano (Argentinian Minister of Foreign Relations) is on far right of the photograph.
During her spread over time career, Lisl Steiner has photographed in New York the most prominent Masters of Jazz like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, B.B.King, Dizzie Gillespie, Nat King Cole, Dizzie Gillespie, Miles Davis and others, along with Carmen Amaya, the best flamenco dancer in history.
Carmen Amaya, Goddess of Flamenco Dance, during her legendary performance in the Village Gate Club of New York (located at the corner of Thompson and Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village) in 1962, one year before her death.
Lisl Steiner got this great picture shooting from a very near distance to the stage, and remembers the breathtaking speed, accuracy and coordination of movements, along with the tremendous strength and fury she displayed (to such an extent she was defined as ´A Human Vesuvius´ by Walter Terry, dance expert of the New York Herald Tribune), it all combined with phases in which she resembled a hummingbird when moving her arms.
The queen of tablaos achieved among others huge international successes like her also mythical performances at the Carnegie Hall of New York in 1941 (being invited by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to a party in the White House a few days later), the London Princess Theatre in 1948 and at the Westminster Theatre of London in 1959.
Shortly after her first appearances in New York in 1941 hired by the Newcomber Manhattan Night Club (where she attained a colossal success throughout three months, with sold out flamenco shows every day, raising the audiences from their seats and earning 82,000 dollars a week with her Flamenco Troupe of Gypsy Dancers and Musicians) she had already been featured by Life magazine with a great reportage on her inside its number of March 10, 1941 with wonderful pictures made by Gjon Mili, who also captured masterfully the unutterable tremendous passion and fire displayed by Carmen Amaya, a woman who could dance flamenco before being born on November 2nd, 1913.
Woman with her son surrounded by different vegetables in a street of La Paz (Bolivia). 1957
A Jewish young boy in a street of New York. 1963
Young Brazilian girl inside a train. 1968
Photographing the death: Lisl Steiner asked a 100 years old man friend of hers for permission to take him a picture just after his demise.
Norman Mailer and his mother at Miami Airport. 1968.
Young couple under a tree near New York.1969
Cover of the number 2/2000 of Leica World Magazine featuring Lisl Steiner.
Lisl Steiner speaking on the phone at her home in Pound Ridge (New York).
Almost 50 years after getting the picture, Lisl Steiner holds the photograph of the coffin with the body of John Fitzgerald Kennedy lying in state that she took inside the Capitol rotunda on November 24, 1963.
Photographing legends of jazz has always been one of Lisl´s favourite subjects. Here we can see Miles Davis
on one corner of the stage of a concert hall in the Village Vanguard Jazz Club of Greenwich Village (New York) in 1963, waiting while other musicians play.
Lisl Steiner holding a print of the photograph she took André Kertész inside the ICP of New York in 1980.
Lisl Steiner inside the Rosen House by the Caramoor Center of Music and The Arts, with the exquisitely carved on both sides 18th century green jade folding screen from Chinese Ch´ing Dinasty (Ch´ien Lung period), featuring eight panels (one of the only two existing in the world) and gilded teak frame, in the background.
Lisl Steiner standing by another of the famous rooms of the Rosen House adjacent to the Caramoor Center of Music and the Arts. She would play the Theremin some minutes later.
Lisl Steiner´s face just after playing Rosen House theremin with her body acting as an electrical conductor.
Lisl Steiner holding a picture dedicated to her by Elliot Erwitt, who made it in Westlicht Schauplatz für Fotografie in Vienna. On the left of the image is Lisl Steiner and the man in the center is Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board and owner of Leica Camera AG.
MEDIUM FORMAT PRODUCTION
Though vast majority of pictures made by Lisl Steiner during her career as a professional photojournalist from late forties to nowadays have been made with 35 mm Leica rangefinder cameras, she has also often used three medium format 6 x 6 cm TLR models:
a) The Rolleiflex Automat with X Sync (made between 1949 and 1951) featuring a lower Tessar 75 mm f/3.5 lens with Compur-Rapid 1-1/500 + T & B taking lens and an upper Heidoscop Anastigmat 75 mm f/2.8 viewing lens.
b) The Rolleiflex 3.5F Model 3 (made between 1960 and 1964) featuring a Carl Zeiss Planar 75 mm f/3.5 lower taking lens with 1 sec to 1/500 sec plus B Synchro-Compur MXV central shutter and a Heidosmat 75 mm f/2.8 upper viewing lens.
c) The Rolleiflex 2.8f K7F Type 1 (made between 1960 and 1981) featuring a lower Zeiss Planar 80 mm f/2.8 taking lens with Deckel Synchro-Compur MXV 60 sec to 1/500 sec plus B central shutter and an upper Heidosmat 80 mm f/2.8 viewing lens.
Lisl Steiner holding her medium format Rolleiflex 3.5F Model 3 on her right hand and her medium format Rolleiflex 2.8f K7F Type 1 on her left one at his home in Pound Ridge (New York).
In spite of featuring roughly double size and weight than Leica rangefinders, the alternative choice of using TLR Rolleiflex 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 (6 x 6 cm) medium format cameras for photojournalism had some significant advantages:
- The viewfinder doesn´t get dark at the moment of getting the picture, since the camera hasn´t got a slapping mirror, so unlike the dslr cameras, it doesn´t generate any vibrations during the photographic act, avoiding any possible lack of sharpness.
- This type of cameras were designed and built to shoot from chest or stomach height, simultaneously focusing and composing through the hooded brilliant ground glass focusing screen on top of it (getting very accurate sharpness and framing turning the focusing knob until the main subject appears with maximum definition or until the two halves of the image meet in the rangefinder wedge of the center of the viewfinder), being also possible to raise the magnifier by gently pressing the direct viewfinder panel), in such a way that the photographer doesn´t need to raise the camera to the eyes, attaining great levels of discretion on shooting from a waist-level viewing position within very short distances to the people, even in overcrowded events, a context epitomized by the great pictures taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt with a 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 medium format Rolleiflex of American soldiers and their girlfriends saying farewell to each other at the New York Pennsylvania Train Station in 1944, some of which were made almost at point blank range.
- The emulsion surface of the 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 (6 x 6 cm) medium format is a 400% bigger than a 24 x 36 mm negative, which sported manifold advantages for great magazines like Life (always striving after attaining maximum feasible quality of reproduction of photographs on its top-notch paper, a tradition pioneered by Margaret Bourke White with her Graflex 5 x 7 " -13 x 18 cm- large format camera in the first number of the magazine of November 23, 1936) when tackling the editing of the pictures, because the layout of the essays and the paging needs often required to reframe the photos, something that to more or less extent degraded the image quality of the pictures reproduced from 35 mm negatives (specially on making enlargements of 18 x 24 cm or bigger, which didn´t happen with the 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 (6 x 6 cm) Rolleiflex medium format negatives that greatly preserved the image quality even in 30 x 40 cm enlargements from cropped areas of the square negative, with superior level of detail and sharpness, always understanding that in photojournalism pictures, the representative moments captured and the meaningful images in themselves are more important than their technicalities.
- Its shooting is very silent, in the same way as the shutter cocking and film advance, which fosters even more the inherent unobtrusiveness of the camera for getting pictures of people with the photographer conveniently shooting from well under the head.
- The aforementioned focusing system, with special emphasis on composition, enables the photographer composing each picture exactly as wanted in the finished print, with the added benefit of vertical and horizontal hairlines that permit balancing composition and levelling camera for flawless results.
Louis Armstrong inside his dressing room. Buenos Aires (Argentina). 1957
Poem on Louis Armstrong dedicated by Ray Bradbury to Lisl Steiner.
Child in Chichicastenango (Guatemala), image belonging to the Children of the Americas Project. 1962
Child standing by the railway track near a village in a rural area of Argentina. 1964. Lisl took this image while she was travelling the country by a train whose speed was not rather slow. The child appears wearing very torn clothes, dirty and barefoot and is asking for food because he´s hungry. Image belonging to the Children of the Americas Project.
Robert Kennedy attending to the funeral of Martin Luther King in Atlanta (Georgia) on April 9th, 1968, five days after his assassination at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis (Tennessee). Lisl Steiner spent the previous night and the morning of April 9 until midday inside the Ebenezer Baptist Church, full of political dignitaries, art personalities, sports legends and labour leaders from all over the world, until Martin Luther King´s casket was loaded into a hearse and taken to the South View Cemetery, located about fifteen minutes from downtown Atlanta, where he was buried.
Back of the previous picture, with the credit Lisl Steiner KEYSTONE PRESS AGENCY.
A GREAT PHOTOGRAPHIC LEGACY
Lisl Steiner´s professional photographic career, spanning throughout 63 years, makes up an outstanding heritage of pictures greatly defining what second half of Twentieth Century was regarding many of its most prominent jazz masters, politicians, photographers, dancers, classical music conductors and performers, writers, etc, together with a unique trove of images of children from 23 countries of South and Central America.
Lisl Steiner holding a black and white Kodak Super-XX 35 mm roll film ( usually rated at ASA 200-250, which was the fast film per excellence between 1938 and 1953, and was used by Lisl during late forties and early fifties until the introduction of the Kodak Tri-X in 1954) negatives exposed in 1949, while its contact sheets is on the table. This b & w emulsion was also one of the most beloved by Robert Franks, which used it on getting some of the pictures of ´ The Americans ´.
Lisl Steiner holding a print of the picture she took Duke Ellington during his concert at Madison Square Garden of New York in 1960. For many years, Lexington Labs NY laboratory was her choice to order enlargements on photographic paper from her 35 mm and medium format original negatives.
Needless to say that the remembrances of amazing situations and experiences lived (some of them truly unforgettable) are also a significant part of her photojournalistic and historical background.
Copyright Text and Indicated Photos: José Manuel Serrano Esparza
MARTIN LUTHER KING FUNERAL APRIL 9, 1968: LISL STEINER IN ACTION
JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY´S STATE FUNERAL IN WASHINGTON D.C. 50TH ANNIVERSARY. PHOTOGRAPHIC COVERAGE BY LISL STEINER ON NOVEMBER 23, 24 AND 25, 1963
INGRID BERGMAN PHOTOGRAPHED BY LISL STEINER
SOCIETY IS KAPUT & OTHER TRUTHS FROM AN AGELESS SPIRIT: LISL STEINER REACHES 400,000 YOUTUBE VISITS
HARTMANN BRILLIANCE OPTIK VIENNA AND LISL STEINER
