Text and Indicated Photos : José Manuel Serrano Esparza
Lisl Steiner on January 3, 2013 beside the entrance door to the New York Leica Gallery at 670 Broadway, where a retrospective photographic exhibition of her most memorable images was held between May 26 and June 24 of the year 2000 (a year after the one celebrated at the Johannes Fasber Gallery of Vienna with a choice of Lisl ´s best pictures).
Lis Steiner was an internationally acclaimed photographer, with a career spanning roughly 70 years as a photojournalist, who started in 1955 and during which she worked for highly prestigious illustrated publications like Life magazine, The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, Keystone Press Agency, O Cruzeiro and others, having photographed a huge variety of world-class personalities in the scope of the arts, music, politics, sport, cinema, literature, science and so forth, like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Oscar Niemayer, Martin Luther King, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Louis Armstrong, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Ray Bradbury, Pelé, Robert Kennedy, Duke Ellington, Ingrid Bergmann, Miles Davies, Leonard Bernstein, Cornell Capa, Carmen Amaya, Adlai Stevenson, Richard Nixon, Franz Beckenbauer, Rod Steiger, Pau Casals, Pablo Neruda, Nat King Cole, Sir Thomas Beecham, Dwight Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger, Andy Warhol, Erich Leinsdorf, Fidel Castro, Ronald Reagan, B. B. King, Norman Mailer, Jorge Luis Borges, Claire Yaffa, Friedrich Gulda and many more, in addition to having worked in Television productions for channels like NBC and PBS.
On the other hand, Lisl Steiner´s images have been featured in articles published by foremost magazines like Leica World, Black + White Photography Magazine,
Leica Photography International and others, along with book of publishers like Lammerhuber.
And her photographs have been displayed all over the world in exhibition rooms and galleries like the Leica Gallery New York, Westlicht Vienna, the Austrian Cultural Forum in Bratislava, the Concrete Space Photographic Gallery of the Art Industry Movement in Miami, the Faber Fotogalerie in Vienna, the Cub Exhibition Hall of the Alicante University Museum, etc.
Photograph made by Lisl Steiner in which she captured the flag folding ceremony previous to the burial of John Fitzgerald Kennedy at Arlington Cemetery on November 25, 1963. Charles de Gaulle (President of France) ans Haile Selassie (Emperor of Ethiopia) appear clearly visible in the center of the image. Ludwig Erhad (Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany) is behind Haile Selassie, while on his right is Diosdado Macapagal (President of Philippines) and Chung Hee Park (President of South Korea). Just beyond the other side of the flag are Hayato Ikeda (Prime Minister of Japan) and Herbert Charles Hoover Jr, son of the 31th President of the United States Herbert Clark Hoover (who couldn´t attend the internment because of illness). Belgian King Badouin I is in the middle area of the image right far zone, and in front of him are the Queen Federica of Greece and Senator Edward Kennedy. Jacqueline Kennedy is the grieving woman wearing black dress and veil being nearest to the camera, and the man standing beside her is Robert Kennedy. 220 dignataries from 92 countries attended JFK´s burial.
Lisl Steiner inside the Schönnbrunn Palace Gloriette café in Vienna on November 23, 2013 with a 30 x 40 cm black and white copy of the picture she made at the Arlington National Cemetery during the flag folding ceremony a few seconds before the internment of John Fitzgerald Kennedy on November 25, 1963.
Lisl Steiner inside the lounge of her home in Pound Ridge (New York), showing a 30 x 40 cm copy of the photograph she made with a Leica M2 and Leitz Canada Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 Version 1 SAWOM 11308 within the Capitolium Rotunda of Washington during the wake of the coffin with the body of John Fitzgerald Kennedy on November 23, 1963.
Lisl Steiner in Westlicht Vienna on November 22, 2013 next to a copy on photographic paper of that picture.
Photograph made by Lisl Steiner in Times Square (New York) on November 22, 1963, few hours after being known the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Dallas (Texas), which brought about the launching of special editions of the most important newspapers and illustrated magazines in the world at the time.
50 years later. Lisl Steiner inside Westlicht Vienna on November 22, 2013 beside a black and white copy on photographic paper of the picture she made at Times Square on November 22, 1963, few hours after JFK´s death was broadcast.
Lisl Steiner with a roll of Kodak-Tri X 400, the black and white film with which she made most of her images during her very long career as a professional photographer. This was the photojournalistic reference-class emulsion throughout the halcyon days of photojournalism, thanks to its high sensitivity for the time, its remarkable versatility in darkroom, its extraordinary acutance, its very wide tonal range and its very special image aesthetics.
Miles Davies playing the trumpet on the stage of the New York Philharmonic Hall at the Lincoln Center on February 12, 1964. Lisl Steiner photographed many of the most mythic greats of jazz during sixties like Miles Davies, Louis Armstrong, B.B.King, Nat King Cole and others.
Carmen Amaya, Goddess of Flamenco Dance, photographed by Lisl Steiner during her legendary performance at the Village Gate Club of New York (placed on the corner of Thompson and Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village) in 1962, a year before her death.
Lisl made this picture from a very near distance to the stage, and remembered very well the amazing speed, accuracy and coordination of movements, together with the tremendous strength and fury she displayed (to such an extent that she was defined by Walter Terry, Herald Tribune expert on dance, as the " Human Vesubius "), which she combined with phases in which she resembled a hummingbird on moving her arms.
The Queen of Tablaos had already achieved huge international successes with her famous performances at the New York Carniege Hall in 1941 ( being invited by the President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt to a party in the White House a few days later), at the London Price Theatre in 1948 and at the London Westminster Theatre in 1959.
Lisl Steiner standing next to one of the rooms of the mythical Rosen House, adjacent to the Caramoor Center for Music and The Arts. Shortly after, Lisl would play the teremin.
Lisl Steiner had a great friendship with Lucie Bigelow Rosen (widow of Walter Tower Rosen, founder of Caramoor), whom she met for the first time in 1960, and from then on, they often had tea on a weekly basis until Lucie´s demise in 1968.
Lisl was a great promoter and historic chronicler of the Caramoor Center for the Music and Arts ( located at 149 Girdle Ridge Road Katonah, New York) throughout more than 40 years, thanks to her deep knowledge on classical music and her masterful drawings of musicians made during live performances.
Lisl Steiner (visible on the right of the image) on December 1, 1964 inside the great hall of the United Nations General Assembly, where its 19th session ( in which three new members — Malawi, Malta and Zambia — are going to be admitted as full members ) is about to begin.
In the rostrum, from left to right are sitting: U Thant (General-Secretary of the United Nations since November 30, 1961), Carlos Sosa-Rodríguez (President of the previous 18th Session of the General Assembly of United Nations, who will open the session) and C.V.Narasimhan (Chief of Cabinet of United Nations since 1961 and Vice General-Secretary of the organization).
The presidential table is already surrounded by professional photographers and movie camera operators huddling to get pictures of the sitting three men and the U.N ambassadors from different countries.
Alfred Eisenstaedt has already placed himself in the best feasible position to get pictures of U Thant (Secretary-General of the United Nations) who is looking at him smiling, while the author of ninety covers in Life illustrated magazine stays put and keeps a lookout for him, with two cameras hanging at mid height under his waist: a Leica M3E-1 (which was presented to him by Ernst Leitz III in 1960 and first prototype of the later Leica MP) coupled to a 8 elements in 6 groups Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 1st Version and a Leica M3 connected to a 5 elements in 3 groups and 12 blade diaphragm Elmarit-M 90 mm f/2.8 original chromed version, designed by Walter Mandler at the Ernst Leitz Midland, Ontario, Canada factory.
Alfred Eisenstaedt photographed by Lisl Steiner in 1961 inside the United Nations Building in New York.
Lisl Steiner on January 1, 2013 inside the lounge of her home in Pound Ride (New York), showing a 30 x 40 cm copy of the same picture.
President of the United States Jimmy Carter photographed by Lisl Steiner on September 7, 1977 at the White House Rose Garden in Washington D.C, when he was about to speak to the press the day he signed the new Panama Canal Treaty and Neutrality Treaty promising to give control of the Canal to the Panamanians by the year 2000.
Lisl Steiner inside Westlicht Photographica Auction Vienna on November 19, 2016, her 89th birthday, walking towards a 30 x 40 cm copy of that picture.
Lisl Steiner within the entrance lounge of the Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth of Vienna on November 20, 2016, with the same copy on photographic paper of the picture she made President of the United States Jimmy Carter on September 7, 1977 at the White House Rose Garden in Washington D.C.
Lisl Steiner inside Westlicht Photographica Vienna on November 14, 2018 listening to the speech by the internationally renowned gallerist Johannes Faber during the presentation of the documentary film in DVD 3 aus Übersee ( " 3 From Overseas " ) , produced by Thomas Hackl & Mina Picture, including biographical sketches of the trajectory as photographers of Lisl Steiner, Erich Lessing and Wold Suschitzky, whose lives were marked by having been born in Vienna (Austria) and being bound to flee Nazism during thirties to save their lives.
Young Hassidic boy in New York. 1963. This extraordinary photograph reveals Lisl Steiner´s huge talent, experience and intuition when it came to getting pictures going unnoticed with Leica rangefinder cameras within very short distances, a sphere in which she was one of the greatest specialists in the whole history of photography.
Lisl manages here to fulfill every good photojournalist´s dream : to become invisible without being detected by the photographed person, as happens in this praiseworthy image, since it is made in an utterly perpendicular way to the boy, with a vertical framing, using a Leica M2 and a 35 mm lens from a distance of approximately 2 meters.
She is a photographer steadily struggling to make the picture work in the frame and have a strong emotional content, with her personal vision and full commitment.
Leica M2 which was given away to Lisl Steiner by Nat Fein, winner of the Pulitzer Photojournalism Prize in 1949. Lisl used it during decades attached to three different lenses : Summicron DR 50 mm f/2, Summilux-M 35 mm f/2 and Super Angulon-M 21 mm f/3.4 with which she appears in this image within the lounge of her home in Pound Ridge (New York) on January 2, 2013.
Leica M5 camera which was used by Lisl Steiner between 1972 and 1990 with Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 and Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 Version 3. Lounge of her home in Pound Ridge (New York). January 2, 2013.
Leica M6 used by Lisl Steiner from 1984 to 1995 with Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 Version 4. Lounge of her home in Pound Ridge (New York). January 2, 2013.
Leica M7 with Tele-Elmarit-M 90 mm f/2, used by Lisl Steiner since 2003. Lounge of her home in Pound Ridge (New York).
Lisl Steiner inside the Rosen House beside the Caramoor Center for the Music and 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, visible in the background.
Oscar Niemayer in Brasilia in 1957. Lisl Steiner visited the city during its second year of construction and photographed the famous Brazilian architect (one of the most important of all time, creator along with Le Corbusier of the United Nations Building in New York and United States Pritzker Prize of Architecture in 1988) posing with some blueprints.
Lisl Steiner in 2014 within Belvedere Museum in Vienna (Austria).
The Austrian pianist Friedrich Gulda, great performer of classical and jazz music, photographed by Lisl Steiner inside the Colón Theatre in Buenos Aires (Argentina) in 1949.
This wonderful image, full of subtlety, masterfully depicts the very special atmosphere at the moment and the latent symbiosis between piano and musician.
It is a picture made from an elevated position, at a very slow shutter speed,
with a Leica IIIc coupled to a Leitz Summitar 5 cm f/2 featuring a ten blade diaphragm and simple coating.
The image unfolds the unutterable aptitude of 24 x 36 mm format Leica rangefinder cameras to obtain this kind of photographs shooting handheld under dim light, as proved by the great depth of field spreading from the lower area of the frame to the wooden doors in the background, with a commendable level of detail visible in lights and shadows, particularly apparent in the piano keys, the pianist seat and the timber´s texture in the left background.
Lisl Steiner on January 4, 2013 engrossed in her thoughts within a café near her home in Pound Ridge (New York), a village she always loved and where she had great friends like Sally Semonite Green, Caroline, Alexa, Lori, Donna, Natasha, Debbie, Susan, Svetlana, Lisa, Cynthia, Pat, Bonni Brodnick (a remarkable writer, featuring an amazing knowledge of Pound Ridge history, great friend of Lisl, whom she knew well and admired deeply, giving her leaps of affection throughout the last years of her life, as well as being author of a touching and truly insightful obituary on Lisl Steiner on June 17, 2023), Sally, Daphne, Angela, Clara, Nancy and many others, who were very important to make Lisl ´s life as good as possible during the final stage of her life.
Martin Luther King photographed by Lisl Steiner in Miami (United States ) in 1965.
Lisl Steiner on January 5, 2013 inside her home in Pound Ridge (New York) showing a picture of Duke Ellington she made during his concert at the Madison Square Garden in New York in 1960. Throughout many years, the Lexington Labs NY photographic laboratory was her frequent choice to do large size copies from the 35 mm and 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 medium format negatives of her photographic production.
Henri Cartier-Bresson photographed by Lisl Steiner while he was waiting for Fidel Castro in a street of New York during one of his visits to United States.
Lisl Steiner inside the main lounge of Westlicht Photographica Vienna on November 14, 2018 signing DVDs after the presentation of the documentary film 3 aus Übersee ( " 3 From Overseas " ), produced by Thomas Hackl & Mina Pictures, including biographical sketches of the trajectory as photographers of Lisl Steiner, Erich Lessing and Wolf Suschitzky, whose lives were marked by having been born in Vienna (Austria) and being bound to flee Nazism during thirties to save their lives.
September 23, 1960. The Soviet premier Nikita Kruschev has invited Fidel Castro to have dinner inside his mansion at Park Avenue 680 and now both of them are on the street, surrounded by Soviet secret agents of Kruschev´s security service and some members of the Cuban delegation who simultaneously perform the task of protecting Fidel Castro, also being abundant the presence of journalists, photographers and a large audience of gathering thrilled people.
Fidel Castro rustles up a speech addressed to all the attendees, which significantly raises the emotional intensity of the moment.
The photographer Lisl Steiner, who works as a freelance for Life, Time, O Cruzeiro and Keystone Press Agency is very near, with her 24 x 36 mm format Leica rangefinder camera coupled to a 50 mm lens and loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 black and white film.
Lisl Steiner has managed to climb up to a bit elevated position, striving after photographing Fidel Castro, on whose left side are Raúl Roa (Foreign Secretary of Cuba) and Antonio Núñez Jiménez (a Cuban scientist), while Nikita Kruschev and Andrei Gromyko (Foreign Secretary of the URSS) are on his right, and major Juan Almeyda is located slightly behind, on the right of the leader of the Cuban revolution.
Lisl Steiner realizes that it is the adequate moment and shoots, getting a great picture, capturing Fidel Castro clad in his typical olive green military fatigues while delivering his speech and holding his cap with his right hand.
The image epitomizes Lisl Steiner´s outstanding mastery in the use of slow shutter speeds shotting handheld, because the picture was probably made at 1/15 s or 1/30 s, with a great depth of field, getting very good sharpness all over the frame and without trepidation, something out of the reach of reflex cameras at the time.
Besides, Lisl skilfully leverages the light coming from the right of the image inciding on the countenances of many of the people appearing in the photograph, so she provides the scene with a great tridimensional effect.
Lisl Steiner inside the lounge of her home in Pound Ridge (New York) on January 4, 2013 examining a roll of Kodak Super-XX black and white film and a number of contact sheets.
Though Lisl´s predilect and most used film was the Kodak Tri-X 400, she also appreciated very much the Kodak Super-XX, which she used to expose between 200 and 250 ASA and was likewise cherished by Robert Franks, who used it to create some of the images in his photobook " The Americans ".
In the same way as happened with other great photojournalists, Lisl Steiner developed an astounding visual culture looking at the 24 x 36 mm contacts as the best method to quickly choose the best images.
Lisl Steiner in the main balcony of Belvedere Palace in Vienna (Austria) in 2015.
Lisl Steiner in 2016 sitting on the stairs coterminous with the main lounge of the Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth in Vienna (Austria).
Robert Kennedy and his wife Ethel photographed by Lisl Steiner on April, 9 1968 during their arrival at the funeral for Martin Luther King at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (United States).
Lisl Steiner is covering the event for Keystone Press Agency, side by side with other famous photojournalists like Bob Adelman (Magnum), Erich Hartmann (Magnum), Cornell Capa (Magnum), Constantin Manos (Magnum), Moneta Sleet (Ebony Magazine), J.P Laffont (Sygma), Don Hogan Charles (New York Times), Flip Schulke (Life), Charles Tasnadi (AP), Mel Finkenstein (New York Daily News) and others.
It´s an exceedingly difficult context to get pictures, because after JFK´s assassination in 1963, only six yeas before, there´s fear for the security of his brother Robert, who is surrounded by bodyguards preventing anybody from approaching.
But Lisl Steiner, with her unswerving courage and fighting spirit, manages to make her way across the crowd, the protective details and the private security of the event.
She knows that she will only be able to do a shot. She is equipped with a 24 x 36 mm Leica M2 with 35 mm f/2 lens and a 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 medium format Rolleiflex 2.8f K7F Type 1 with Zeiss Planar 80 mm f/2.8 lens.
She has almost reached Robert Kennedy, from whom she is only separated by one of the security members, who is grabbing Robert Kennedy with his right arm.
Lisl is very near him. Stress is maximum. Lisl realizes that if she tries to raise her Leica M2 at the height of her eyes to make the photograph, anything can happen,
so she decides to use her medium format Rolleiflex and shoot focusing with the camera waist level finder.
And she gets a very good picture of Robert Kennedy, in spite of the many shoves prevailing in that area.
Robert Kennedy´s face appears a bit out of focus, but it doesn´t matter, because in this kind of photojournalistic pictures, the key factor is to capture meaningful images like this in the most adequate moments and within a very short distance. And that slightly out of focus appearance of Robert Kennedy´s facial expression confers the image tons of dynamism.
Lisl Steiner on January 2, 2013 speaking on the phone at her home in Pound Ridge (New York).
November 15, 1971 inside the United Nations Building in New York during the 26th General Assembly.
Lisl Steiner photographs at very close range with her Leica M2 four members of the Chinese delegation (three weeks after October 25, 1971, date in which United Nations voted to admit the People´s Republic of China among the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council : Huang Hua (Permanent Ambassador to the United Nations and former Ambassador in Canada), Chiao Kuan Hua (Deputy Foreign Minister), Ms Wang Hai Yong (President Mao Tse-Tung´s niece), Hsiung Hsiang Hui (who had studied at American universities during the 1940s and would be Chinese Ambassador to Mexico next year), Chen Chu (alert analyst of Soviet and Mid East affairs), Tang Ming-chao (who had lived in United States for sixteen years prior to Mao Tse-Tung´s takeover of the Chinese mainland in 1949) and Kao Liang (chief of intelligence and espionage missions).
© jmse
46 years later. Lisl Steiner in november of 2017 inside her room of the Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth in Vienna (Austria) holding between her hands a 30 x 40 cm copy of the picture she made in 1971.
© jmse
Another image of Lisl Steiner in November 2017 in the main lounge of the Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth in Vienna (Austria).
Lisl Steiner´s extraordinary photographic career, which started in 1959, wasn´t easy at all and there were stages of great suffering, wholly immersed in a professional environment in which most photographers were men.
Unquestionably, in that time it was much more difficult for a woman to go far in the world of photogtraphy than for a man, because of a number of reasons.
But Lisl strove after achieving it, not only thanks to her huge gift, intuition, mastery, experience and innate prowess to always be at the adequate place, in the most adequate moment and as near as possible, but also thanks to the huge personality, courage, boundless energy and persistence of this unique and irrepeteable woman, whose praiseworthy unselfishness and unutterable greatness as a human being went beyond her extraordinary dimension as a photographer.
Lisl Steiner at the age of 33 near Manaos, Mato Grosso (Brazil), in a trip she made in 1960, during which she photographed the Caraya and Yanomami tribes in some stretches of the Amazon river. A 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 Rolleiflex 2.8f K7F Type 1 medium format camera is hanging from her right shoulder.
Lisl Steiner fifty-three years later inside the lounge of her home in Pound Rodge (New York) on January 3, 2013 with the same medium format camera she used along with a Leica M3 during her first journey to the Amazon jungle of Brazil in 1960.
As well as being a stunning specialist in the creation of images with her 24 x 36 mm Leica rangefinder cameras within very close distances, Lisl was also an accomplished expert in the use of 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 medium format Rolleiflex cameras yielding square images, with which she would attain her highest levels during the making of her mythical reportage " The Children of the Americas " from 1959 onwards.
Lisl Steiner inside the Blaue Bar of the Sacher Horel in Vienna (Austria) in 2015 with a 30 x 40 cm copy on photographic paper of a picture she made in 1960 of a Carayan tribe Indian nex to the Amazon river in the Mato Grosso (Brazil) area.
Lisl Steiner was one of the pioneers photographing the ancient Amazon tribes of Brazil and ask for the protection of their lives, habits, traditions and habitats.
Lisl Steiner at the Amawalk Cemetery (New York) on January 4, 2013 next to the graves of Robert Capa, Julia Capa (Robert Capa´s mother), Cornell Capa (Robert Capa´s brother) and Edith Capa (Cornell Capa´s wife).
Lisl Steiner was Julia Capa´s best friend until her death on December 30, 1961, in addition to also being a great friend of Cornell Capa and his wife Edith, with whom she had tea many times in Cornell Capa´s apartment in Manhattan (New York).
Picture of Ingrid Bergmann and her husband Lars Schmidt made by Lisl Steiner in Madison Avenue (New York) in 1967.
Lisl Steiner in Westlicht Vienna on November 23, 2014, sitting next to a 30 x 40 cm copy of the same photograph.
Second picture made by Lisl Steiner to Ingrid Bergmann with her husband Lars Schmidt in Madison Avenue, New York, in 1967.
Lisl Steiner on November 22, 2014 on the access stairs to Westlicht Photographica Vienna, holding with her left hand a 30 x 40 cm copy of the second picture she made Ingrid Bergmann with her husband Lars Schmidt in Madison Avenue, New York.
Lisl Steiner inside the main lounge of the Sacher Hotel in Vienna (often visited by Ingrid Bergmann during fifties and sixties) with a Leica D-Lux 5 Titanium Special Edition given away to her by Andreas Kaufmann, CEO of Leica Cameras AG.
Impressive portrait of Edson Arantes do Nascimento " Pelé ", made by Lisl Steiner at the Giants Stadium in East Rutheford, New Jersey, during one of his matches as a player of New York Cosmos.
© jmse
Lisl has approached him as much as possible with a 24 x 36 mm format Leica M3 angefinder camera coupled to a 7 elements in 6 groups Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 Dual Range, making the most of its ability as a short tele lens to get this kind of portraits with head and shoulders.
And she is successful depicting the main traits of his personality, going unnoticed, in an instant in which the Brazilian player is sweating buckets after the warm-up before the game, absent-minded and with his countenance reflecting a great emotional intensity.
Steve Ross (CEO of Time Warner Inc. and Warner Communications) and Pelé hugging each other in 1977 within the New York Cosmos locker room.
Lisl Steiner has managed to make her way through the many photographers until placing herself in a perpendicular way, almost at point blank range with respect to them, and gets the picture with the Leica M2 given away to her by Nat Fein in late sixties, coupled to a Super-Angulon-M 21 mm f/3.4, attaining a great depth of field, despite she shoots at a very slow shutter speed making that Steve Ross´s left hand, being in motion, appears blurred, so Lisl obtains a substantial feeling of movement.
Visible on the right is Mark Ross (Steve´s son), whose countenance appears distorted by the extreme wideangle lens coupled to the Leica M2 with which Lisl makes the photograph.
Lisl Steiner with the Leica M2 presented to her by Nat Fein. Lounge of her home in Pound Ridge, New York. January 3, 2013.
Back view of the Leica M2 gifted to Lisl Steiner by Nat Fein. You can see on far left the eyepiece of the 0.72x viewfinder integrated with the rangefinder, and in the middle of the top zone, on the hotshoe, is the external viewfinder with bright-line frames for 21 mm lenses.
Franz Beckenbauer photographed by Lisl Steiner in the jacuzzi of the New York Cosmos Club House training room while speaking with Henry Kissinger (United States Secretary of State).
It´s a very special image, because the presence of a woman at the time inside the locker-room of a football club made up by men was something completely uncommon, so it was virtually impossible to go unnoticed, something that was always top priority for the Austro-American photographer.
But once more, she managed to do it, approaching very much and capturing by surprise with her Leica M2 and 8 elements in 6 groups Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 Version 1 SAWOM 11308 lens the three persons appearing in the photograph (Henry Kissinger, Franz Beckenbauer and Werner Roth).
Lisl masterfullyt takes a picture of a significant instant in which Franz Beckenbauer has his right fist clenched and his countenance brimming with energy and illusion, in the peak of his talking with Henry Kissinger, while Werner Roth is apparently exhausted and engrossed in his thoughts.
Needless to say that the excellent horizontally travelling focal-plane shutter with rubberized silk curtains of the Leica M2 producing a barely perceptible noise, helps preserve discretion, and on being a rangefinder camera lacking a swivelling mirror, it enables Lisl to choose f/8 or f/11 with a slow shutter speed, shooting handheld without trepidation (something that would have been impossible with a reflex cameras) and getting great depth of field, so the three main characters of the scene are depicted sharp.
8 elements in 6 groups Leitz Canada Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 First Version SAWOM 11308, highly appreciated by Lisl Steiner because of its tiny size and light weight (only 150 g). She used it since early sixties, coupled to her Leica M2 camera to get pictures shooting handheld, particularly in low light contexts.
Designed by Walter Mandler in the Leitz Factory in Midland, Ontario (Canada) in 1958 with a classic Double-Gauss scheme, buit adding two further elements, was and keeps on being fairly comfortable to handle, as well as featuring a superb handcrafted construction and a very thorough assembly and centering of the optical elements made by Hans Karl Wiese, and an extraordinary grinding and polishing of them by Horst Haseneier, under the overall supervision of Rudolf Seck regarding its exquisite opto-mechanic performance and its very special image aesthetics.
Photography made by Lisl Steiner on November 4, 1960 to Adlai Stevenson (democrat candidate to the United States presidential elections in 1952 and 1956, who had been appointed by JFK United States Ambassasdor to the United Nations few days before, position that he would hold between January 23, 1961 and Juiy 14, 1965) inside the United States Embassy in Rio do Janeiro, in a big room with a shelf full of books visible in the background.
Adlai Stevenson is talking to a man standing on the right of the image, while a third man wearing glasses appears smiling while listening the dialogue between both of them, and a fourth one crosses the room walking slowly.
Lisl Steiner has been watching them for some minutes and suddenly magic arises : in the middle of the conversation, Adlai Stevenson has a brief instant of introspection, and it is now when the photographer approaches him as much as possible and gets the picture, going unnoticed for the umpteenth time, to such an extent that the three men nearest the camera don´t see the Austrian-American photojournalist while she presses the shutter release button of her Leica M2 camera coupled to a Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 Version 1 SAWOM.
Moreover, the wise composition made by Lisl has generated a very powerful triangle as epicenter of the action, whose main characters are the two men talking and the one being smiling, very close and looking at them, while the fourth man visible in the background on the left, behind Adlai Stevenson´s head, is crossing the room alien to the conversation and appears slightly blurred as a consequence of the very low shutter speed with which the picture has been made, providing feeling of motion and dynamism to any beholder of the image, highlighted by the out of focus books of the shelves appearing in the background, which seem to be also moving.
Lisl Steiner inside the Leica Store Vienna in November 2020. Sporting huge talent, inexhaustible stamina, bold character and courage to spare in the close distances, along with an unusual savvy to capture decisive instants, this great phpotographer and exceptional person has been one of the most important Leica ambassadors in the history of the German photographic firm, whose rangefinder cameras and lenses boasting very little dimensions and low weight, matched flawlessly her discreet, very agile and dynamic photographing style.
Another image of Lisl Steiner inside the Leica Store Vienna in November 2020, speaking with two experts of the German brand. Lisl Steiner was able to elaborate for hours on all kind of aspects related to photography, in addition to passionately narrating a lot of situations she lived during her roughly 70 years career as a professional photographer, working for the most important illustrated magazines in the world.
Lisl Steiner in November 2020 posing beside the Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth in Vienna (Austria), where she lodged every time she visited this wonderful city, one of the most beautiful in the world, where she was born in 1927.
Lisl Steiner in November of 2019 next to the access door to the Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth in Vienna (Austria).
Though she was forced to escape with her parents to Argentina in 1938 to save her life, the Austrian capital was always Lisl ´s favourite city, loving it with all of her being and visiting it frequently since seventies, particularly in winter.
Lisl Steiner in 2017 inside Stephansdom, the Gothic style fabulous cathedral of Vienna featuring a height of 136,44 meters. This medieval building always exerted a great fascination in Lisl Steiner, who often visited it in mid thirties of XX Century, before her exodus to Argentine and later to United States. Once within it, Lisl went into deep introspection, remembering her childhood.
Lisl Steiner inside the Blaue Bar of Sacher Hotel in Vienna (Austria), another of her favourite places in the Austrian capital.
Lisl Steiner in November of 2019 inside her room 301 of the Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth in Vienna (Austria) with the 24 x 36 mm Leica Q digital camera with Summilux 28 mm f/1.7 lens that was given away to her by Andreas Kaufmann, CEO of Leica Camera AG, in 2016.
Lisl´s huge personality oozing humbleness, unselfishness and great humanity made her be highly appreciated by every employee of the staff, who will never forget her.
© jmse
Lisl Steiner on January 4, 2013 beside the main entrance of the Algonquin Hotel in Times Square, New York.
United States was along with Argentine Lisl´s second homeland and the country in which since 1960 (year of her arrival in United States) started the international expansion of her career as a professional photographer, working for the most important illustrated magazines in the world.
She appears here again on January 4, 2013 inside the ground floor legendary café of the Algonquin Hotel in New York, placed in 59 West 44th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues, considered to be one of the ten most historically interesting hotels in United States and which was built in 1902.
Since then and for more than a hundred years, it has been the frequent 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 was also for decades a frequent meeting and conversation venue of Lisl Steiner in Midtown Manhattan.
Another image of Lisl Steiner inside the ground floor café of the Algonquin Hotel in New York. Through her indescribable people skills, great culture, humbleness and an unwavering sense of independence, Lisl was from early sixties until her death on June 7, 2023, one of the best related persons both in New York and Viena in the sphere of photography, culture and arts.
Lisl Steiner in October of 2016 inside the Café Kristall, a legendary shrine of Austrian cuisine in Soho, Manhattan, New York, created by the famous chef Kurt Gutenbrunner and boasting a Swarovski crystallized structure.
Lisl visited it frequently and was always bedazzled by this concept store, whose fundamental keynote was Kurt Gutenbruner´s creativity when it came to interpreting classic Austrian dishes in a completely new and different way, but preserving the true Austrian essence, it all in symbiosis with Nadja Swarovski ( a driving force of passion for architecture and art), who helped obtain the globular Swarovski crystal chandelier, designed by Tom Dixon, that hangs above the bar and throws brilliant light on the upstairs dining room, without forgetting the two-story tall Vincent Van Duysen chandelier that leads the way downstairs in a cascade of crystal.
Norman Mailer and his mother at Miami Airport. 1968.
Lisl Steiner gets the picture from a very close distance, with her Leica M2 coupled to a Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 Version 1 SAWOM and going unnoticed, a scope in which 24 x 36 mm format Leica rangefinder cameras ere the benchmark photographic tools.
The image features great depth of field because she hasn´t focused turning the lens barrel until the two images of the rangefinder coincide into one.
Lisl had her camera previously configured probably at f/8 or f/11, combining the distance scale and the depth of field scale of the lens, to get sharp zone between approximately 2 meters and 6 meters, getting the fastest autofocus existing on earth until now : the zone focusing.
Therefore, Lisl only has to raise the camera at her eyes height to make the photograph.
In addition, the use of a rangefinder camera like the Leica means that unlike a reflex camera, there isn´t any viewfinder darkening during the exposure, so the photographer can see what is happening at every moment, with the added advantage of the bright-line frames enabling her to watch outside the frame of every specific lens.
Letter sent by Norman Mailer to Lisl Steiner thanking her for the picture of him and his mother she took 25 years before.
" PORTRAITS FROM PARADISE " PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION AT THE AUSTRIAN CULTURAL FORUM IN BRATISLAVA (SLOVAKIA)
Between November 3 and December 5 of 2017 took place at the Austrian Cultural Forum (Hodzovo Nameste 1/A) in Bratislava (Slovakia) the photographic exhibition " Portraits from Paradise ", which included an assortment of 40 of the best pictures made by Lisl Steiner between fifties and early eighties of XX Century.
Lisl Steiner on November 3, 2017, day of the exhibition premiere in Bratislava (Slovakia).
Lisl Steiner on November 3, 2017 inside the Exhibition Room of the Austrian Cultural Forum in Bratislava (Slovakia) roughly half an hour before the beginning of his photographic exhibition " Portraits from Paradise ".
Start of the lecture by Lisl Steiner within the Exhinbition Room of the Austrian Cultural Forum in Bratislava on November 3, 2017, day of the presentation of her photographic exhibition " Portraits from Paradise ", which gathered a great quantity of attendees. Next to Lisl is Branislav Stepanek, Curator, Project Manager and Director of the exhibition.
Lisl Steiner during a moment of the event premiere, surrounded by Katarina Lesná (Director of Public Relations and Marketing of the Austrian Cultural Forum in Bratislava) and Wilhelm Pfeislinger ( Director of the Austrian Cultural Forum in Bratislava).
From left to right, three highly representative photographs made by Lisl Steiner, displayed inside the Exhibition Room of the Austrian Cultural Forum in Bratislava the presentation day of Lisl Steiner´s exhibition " Portraits from Paradise " :
- Senator Robert Kennedy inside the Carlyle Hotel in New York with some Irish children. 1967
- Times Square (New York). Woman crying for the death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy on November 22, 1963.
- Times Square (New York) on November 22, 1963, few hours after being known that JFK had been assassinated in Dallas (Texas), which prompted the launching of many special editions of the most important newspapers and illustrated magazines in the world at the moment.
Lisl Steiner speaking to the very abundant attending audience during the presentation of her photographic exhibition " Portraits from Paradise ", which didn´t leave anybody unmoved, paticularly the lovers of classic black and white photography from a golden period of photojournalism, resulting in great thrill among the visitors.
Lisl Steiner hugged by one of the attendees to the exhibition. Thanks to her extraordinary personality, charm, social skills and unasuming demeanour, Lisl gained the sincere appreciation and respect of every spectator who arrived in Bratislava from different areas of Europe and United States to see live this landmark exhibition.
In the background of the image can be seen two further pictures made by her :
- The pianist Friedrich Gulda in Buenos Aires. 1949.
- The British orchestra conductor Sir Thomas Beecham playing the piano in 1963.
Other three famous photographs made by Lisl Steiner and shown inside the Exhibition Room of the Austrian Cultural Forum in Bratislava the premiere day of the exhibition " Portraits from Paradise " :
- Duke Ellington during his concert at the Madison Square Garden of New York in 1960.
- Carmen Amaya, Goddess of Flamenco Dance, during her legendary performance at the Village Gate Club of New York in 1962, one year before her death.
- Pete Seeger singing surrounded by children. 1968
Spellbound audience while Lisl Steiner explains details of her pictures displayed within the Exhibition Room of the Austrian Cultural Forum in Bratislava during its opening day.
Lisl Steiner always lived photography with huge passion.
Another instant during the opening day of this spectacular exhibition held the year 2017 in Bratislava : Lisl Steiner breaks down with lavish detail aspects of one of her photographs, while a great number of utterly devoted spectators revel in the unforgettable experience.
Lisl Steiner happy and in deep introspection while strolling beside a picture she made on September 9, 1973 of United States Secretary Henry Kissinger at the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.
LISL STEINER TRAVELS FROM NEW YORK TO CERRO MURIANO (CÓRDOBA, SPAIN) TO ATTEND TO THE PRESENTATION OF THE BOOK " ROBERT CAPA IN CERRO MURIANO, SEPTEMBER 5, 1936 : BIRTH OF THE MODERN WAR PHOTOJOURNALISM ".
In late October 1961, two months before her death, Julia Friedmann, Robert Capa´s mother, phoned Lisl Steiner, her best friend, and told her to please go to the small apartment that her son Cornell Capa had in the 5th Avenue in Manhattan (New York), because she didn´t feel well and wanted to give her something.
Once there, and in the presence of Cornell and his wife Edie, Julia Friedmann said to her : ´ Take this camera. I give it to you. My son Robert gave it to me many years ago and told me that it was this camera with which he made his first pictures in Spain in 1936 and with which he had its fire baptism in Cerro Muriano (Córdoba) ´ .
Cover of the FV Foto-Actualidad photographic magazine of December 2021, which included in depth information on the visit of Lisl Steiner to Cerro Muriano (Córdoba), in the same way as did Barnack Berek Blog, LF magazine and Fotografiarte.
Julia Friedmann sitting next to the grave of her son Robert Capa at the Cemetery of Amawalk (New York) in early October 1961, after inconsolably weeping for some minutes.
Lisl Steiner had a great and sincere friendship with Julia Friedmann, a broken in life woman after his son Robert´s death, but who gave her true affection, so she was always grateful to her.
There were also terrible moments, because she had to accompany her different times to the Amawalk Cemetery (New York), where Julia Friedmann wanted to constantly go to hug his son´s grave.
That was heart-wrenching. She sobbed and stuck to her son´s grave without any possible relief.
Lisl never forgot those instants and the wonderful present that Julia Friedmann gave her : the Leica II (Model D) rangefinder camera with Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 that Simon Guttmann (Director of the Dephot Photographic Agency in Berlin) had presented to Endre Enrö Friedmann in 1932.
52 years later, in 2012, Lisl Steiner decided to sell this camera in Westlicht Vienna, the most important firm in the world devoted to the auction of classic cameras and lenses, because she was 85 years old and it was better that the camera was in the hands of some private collector keeping it in the best way for its preservation in future.
The sale of the camera was a big success and reached a final bid of 78,000 euros by a British collector.
Lisl Steiner inside the lounge of Westlicht Photographica Auction in Vienna (Austria) on November 24, 2012, showing the page of the German illustrated magazine Der Welt-Spiegel of December 11, 1932 with some of the photographs made by Endre Ernö Friedmann to León Trotsky in Copenhaguen (Denmark) fourteen days before, on November 27 of that year, with the Leica II (Model D) camera sold in Westlicht.
Lisl Steiner holds with both hands two enlarged contacts of the reportage that Endre Ernö Friedmann made León Trostsky in Copenhaguen in 1932, using the Leica II (Model D) number 90023 with Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 and 35 mm format bulk loaded black and white cinematographic film Kodak Panchromatic Nitrate featuring a sensitivity of Weston 32, roughly equivalent to ISO 40. Inside the lounge of Westlicht Photographica Auction on November 24, 2012.
Book " Robert Capa in Cerro Muriano, September 5, 1936 : Birth of the Modern War Photojournalism ", written by José Manuel Serrano Esparza after a research of 26 years going to the village and its surroundings between 1995 and 2021, promoted by the Córdoba Provincial Council and the Obejo Cerro Muriano Town Hall.
18:30 h in the evening. Lisl Steiner inside her room in the Restaurant Bar X of Cerro Muriano (Córdoba) on December 3, 1936, day of the official presentation of the book at 19:00 h in this village situated 15 km in the north of Córdoba City.
18:45 h in the evening of December 3, 2021. Lisl Steiner arrives at the Municipal Office of the Obejo Town Council in Cerro Muriano (Córdoba), being helped by Juan José Obrero Castro (President of the Cerro Muriano Entrepreneurs Association) and Alfonso del Barrio (Director of FV photography magazine), while Robert Baldridge ( The New York Times) walks beside them.
Juan José Obrero Castro and Alfonso del Barrio are now with Lisl very near the access door to the Assembly Lounge of the Obejo-Cerro Muriano Town Hall.
Moment in which Alfonso del Barrio (Director of FV photography magazine) goes into the Assembly Lounge taking Lisl Steiner by the arm, while Robert Baldridge photographs the historical instant.
90 years old Rafael Centeno Cobos (who escaped from Cerro Muriasno with his parents, brothers and sisters when he was only four years old) stares at Lisl Steiner from his wheelchair.
While he sees Lisl, he is remembering the very hard journey he lived on September 5, 1936.
He knows that the woman walking slowly in front of her was Julia Friedmann´s best friend,whom Robert Capa´s mother gave in october of 1961 the Leica II (Model D) camera with which his son made the pictures in Cerro Muriano.
It´s impossible to explain with words the huge emotion pervading every attendee in the lounge, almost totally full of audience,
who burst into applause, greatly appreciating the strenuous effort she has made to come to Cerro Muriano, the village Robert Capa talked his mother Julia and Cornell Capa about, explaining them that it was there where his fire baptism took place.
There are within the lounge people from three generations of Cerro Muriano inhabitants who are living historical moments that will leave an indelible imprint in their memory, since Robert Capa and Gerda Taro are a very important part of their village history.
85 years have elapsed since Capa and Gerda Taro were in Cerro Muriano, but they keep on being increasingly present.
Speakers table within the Assembly Hall, a few seconds before the beginning of the book presentation.
Standing up, from left to right : Adela Romero Blanque (Culture Town Councillor of the Obejo-Cerro Muriano-Estación de Obejo Town Council), Ramón Hernández Lucena (Delegate Deputy of Democratic Memory and Cooperation to Development in Córdoba), Pedro López Molero (Mayor of Obejo-Cerro Muriano-Estación de Obejo Town Council), Juan José Obrero Castro (President of Cerro Muriano Entrepreneurs Association). Sitting : Lisl Steiner (international photographer) and José Manue Serrano Esparza (photo historian, member of the Leica Historical Society of America and author of the book).
Pedro López Molero (Mayor of the Obejo-Cerro Muriano Town Hall) during his speech in which he underscored the significance of Robert Capa and Gerda Taro in the history of Cerro Muriano and the historical visit of Lisl Steiner for this book presentation, after making a trip of 8,000 km from United States. On her right is Adela Romero Blanque ( Culture Councillor of the Obejo-Cerro Muriano-Estación de Obejo Town Hall ).
Adela Romero Blanque during her address. The Obejo-Cerro Muriano-Estación de Obejo Culture Councillor, a highly cherished person in the village, which she knows deeply, elaborated on the bet for culture that has always been a hallmark of the Town Council and also underlined the awesome relevance of the pictures made by Robert Capa in Cerro Muriano on September 5, 1936 and the birth in it of the modern war photojournalism.
Lisl Steiner on her seat at the speakers table, with her 24 x 36 mm format Leica Q digital camera coupled to a Summilux 28 mm f/1.7 ASPH lens that was given away to her by Andreas Kaufmann (CEO of Leica Camera AG) in 2019.
Lisl Steiner holding the book between her hands. Almost ninety years separate the analogue Leica II (Model D) manufactured in Wetzlar (Germany) in 1932 with which Capa got his pictures in Cerro Muriano from the 24 x 36 mm format Leica Q digital camera that Lisl Steiner has on the table and which was given away to her by Andreas Kaufmann (CEO of Leica Camera AG).
Ramón Hernández Lucena (Delegate Deputy of Democratic Memory and Cooperation to Development of Córdoba) perusing with Juan José Obrero Castro (President of the Cerro Muriano Entrepreneurs Association) some pages of the book " Robert Capa in Cerro Muriano, September 5, 1936 : Birth of the Modern War Photojournalism " written by José Manuel Serrano Esparza.
The speech pronounced by Ramón Hernández Lucena was another of the most important aspects of the day, insisting on the timeless relevance of Robert Capa figure in the History of Photography, and also on the endeavour made by the Delegation of Democratic Memory of the Córdoba Province Council to finance the book, a key factor to turn it into reality.
The deputy Ramón Hernández, visible touched, clearly perceives the significance of this book presentation and says that among all the books he has introduced until now, this is the one having gathered more people, something that in his words must make very proud the Obejo-Cerro Muriano-Estación de Obejo Town Council, its Culture Councilorship and the Córdoba Province Government, because having the Assembly Hall almost full of people a Friday at 19:00 p.m in such a cold evening and in the middle of the longest holiday weekend of the year is an unprecedented success.
He also states that it is an honour to have Lisl Steiner in the event and thanks her for the huge effort made to attend the presentation of the book.
Juan José Obrero Castro (President of the Association of Entrepreneurs from Cerro Muriano) during his speech.
Alfonso del Barrio (Editor in Chief of FV Photography Magazine) during his speech, in which he underscored the significance of this book, fruit of 26 years of effort, Robert Capa´s huge photographic dimension, which goes on being abiding, and the seminal importance of the pictures he made in Cerro Muriano (Córdoba) and which meant his fire baptism as a war photojournalist, together with the very meaningful visit of Lisl Steiner to this village of Córdoba (Spain) for the presentation of the book.
© José Luis Caballano Alcántara
Lisl Steiner (author of the four pages prologue) with José Manuel Serrano Esparza (author of the book).
One of the tables with the books " Robert Capa in Cerro Muriano, September 5, 1936 : Birth of the Modern War Photojournalism " that were given away to the attendees to the presentation inside the Assembly Hall of the Municipal Office of Obejo Town Council in Cerro Muriano (Córdoba).
It is a 29 x 22 cm and 236 pages work stemming from 26 years of intensive research made in the place by its author, the photo historian José Manuel Serrano Esparza, between 1995 and 2021, including an in-depth analysis of every and each of the images created by Robert Capa in Cerro Muriano during the first week of September 1936.
Robert Baldridge ( The New York Times) showing one of the images he captured with his smartphone and in which can be seen one of the long queues made up for the signature of books by José Manuel Serrano Esparza (author of the book) and Lisl Steiner (author of the prologue).
After the end of the book presentation, which took place between 19:00 h and 20:00 h of December 3, 2021, most people waited standing up in long queues for the signature of books by both Lisl Steiner (author of the prologue) and José Manuel Serrano Esparza (author of the book).
Another of the most touching and impressive instants of the day : Robert Baldridge shows the instant in which Rafael Centeno Cobos has just received his book as a gift, and on looking at the cover, he goes into deep introspection, remembering the September 5, 1936 day, when being only four years and a half old he had to flee Cerro Muriano with his parents, brothers and sisters.
He is one of the very few survivors of that historical day in which the agile and dynamic modern war photojournalism was born in this small village being fifteen kilometers in the north of Córdoba City.
Lisl Steiner speaking in Canal Sur TV on the book " Robert Capa in Cerro Muriano, September 5, 1936 : Birth of the Modern War Photojournalism ", written by José Manuel Serrano Esparza after twenty-six years of intensive research and of whose prologue she is author :
THE INTUITIVE LENS OF LISL STEINER : GOLDEN BROOCH IN ALICANTE TO LISL STEINER´S CAREER AS A PHOTOGRAPHER
On March 3, 2022 was held the lecture and photographic exhibition " The Intuitive Lens of Lisl Steiner " at the Cub Room of the Alicante University Museum, within the Alicante Festival of Photography,
organized by the University of that city
and the DORCAM Museum of Contemporary Art (a key institution in the genesis of this event, thanks to the efforts of its director Marcelo Llobell and Flor Mayoral, Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees) in synergy with Leónidas Spinelli (Director of Photo Alicante).
Lisl Steiner has travelled from New York to Alicante to give this lecture (whose beginning is scheduled to 18:00 h in the evening inside the Cub Room of the Alicante University Museum) and be paid homage with the displayed picture exhibition showing a number of her most defining images, specially the ones belonging to her iconic long-term photographic project " The Children of the Americas ".
Minutes go by slowly, because everybody wants Lisl Steiner to arrive as soon as posible.
People keep on steadily arriving.
But this time, what Lisl Steiner is going to offer to every attendee are not images of celebrities from sixties, seventies and eighties, but a lecture titled " The Intuitive Lens of Lisl Steiner ", after which she will inaugurate the photographic exhibition with more than forty images from her iconic photographic project " The Children of the Americas ", made between 1959 and early nineties.
Clemens Kneringer (professional Austrian photographer and videographer) films Lisl Steiner and Karstein Lohne while they cross the main access door to the museum, followed by Flor Mayoral and Marcelo Llobell, while more and more visitors go on arriving to watch the event on the spot.
Lisl Steiner and Karstein Lohne continue walking towards the University of Alicante Cub Hall access door, followed by Marcelo Llobell and Flor Mayoral.
Lisl Steiner, Marcelo Llobell (Director of the DORCAM Contemporary Art Museum in Doral, Miami) and Flor Mayoral (Vicepresident of the DORCAM Board of Trustees, Miami University Medicine Ph.D and a recognized photographer) are welcomed by Catalina Iliescu, Culture Vice Chancellor of Alicante University.
After advancing some more meters, Lisl Steiner goes into the facilities of the Alicante University Museum, followed by Marcelo Llobell and Flor Mayoral, being welcomed by Leónidas Spinelli (Director of PhotoAlicante and Curator of " The Intuitive Lens of Lisl Steiner " photographic exhibition " along with Marcelo Llobell).
A HISTORICAL LECTURE
Once Lisl Steiner is on her seat at the speakers´ table and with an utterly overcrowded hall, it´s time for the presentation speeches of Lisl Steiner by Catalina Iliescu and Leónidas Spinelli, sitting beside her.
It is now when the emotional intensity begins to skyrocket by leaps and bounds inside the Cub Hall of the Alicante University Museum,
with Lisl Steiner apparently touched and very thankful for the love she is being given by the host of attendees to the event, a heartfelt endearment that will reach its high peaks within some minutes.
Because this has only just started.
Catalina Iliescu pronounces a highly sensitive speech in which after sincerely thanking Lisl Steiner, Marcelo Llobell and Flor Mayoral for having travelled from United States to Alicante, she focuses on Lisl Steiner´s gift as a photographer and her stratospheric stature as a human being, summing up the main milestones of her extensive biography (during which she photographed the most important international figures of arts, sports and politics all over the world) and the top-notch illustrated magazines in whose pages she published her pictures.
But the Alicante University Vice Chancellor´s words particularly elaborate on Lisl Steiner´s fascinating personality, her elegance and class, her well-known humbleness and the simplicity of her style getting pictures, greatly based on being at the adequate place and instant, approaching as much as possible to subjects and pressing the shutter release button of her camera at the best moment to capture decisive split seconds, a biotope of constant fight in the shortest distances to attain the best feasible photographs.
Catalina Iliescu explains that Lisl Steiner is not a photographer excelling in the technical perfection of her images, since in the realm of photojournalism the important thing is to get pictures oozing meaning, conveying messages and moving any observer.
And regarding such field, Lisl Steiner is a full-fledged master, featuring great experience, psychological insight and an unutterable ability to empathize with the persons she photographs, always in an unobtrusive and respectful way, trying to go unnoticed during the photographic act.
Therefore, Lisl Steiner´s pictures exude humanity and depiction of fleeting instants that she turned into timeless once and again.
Whatever it may be, Catalina Iliescu makes a point of expressing her conviction that it is in the sphere of children photography where Lisl Steiner reveals most powefully her true unselfish and generous nature as a human being, because she is a woman who always rose up against poverty, misery and social inequalities, specially suffered during childhood, the period in which people are more vulnerable and are acquiring their psychosomatic and personality traits that will mark their future.
All of it within the frame of a very personal photographing style, grounded on intuition, improvisation, not thinking too much, simply observing the situation and doing the things as you feel them to capture the most defining instants.
Alicante University Vice Chancellor is thrilled and has thoroughly prepared her speech.
Almost thirty years after meeting Mario Benedeti for the first time during nineties, she is fully aware that today is a further turning point in her life, because Lisl Steiner is also an exceptional human being giving a life lesson every time she pronounces or writes a word.
Catalina Iliescu continues, visibly moved, and remembers how when being a child she saw her father in Romania delve into the black and white photography alchemy, developing his films and hanging the negatives from the clothes ropes for them to dry.
It is now when on arriving the turn of the welcoming speech to Lisl Steiner by the Photo Alicante Director, something unexpected happens, making every attendee understand, even more, the huge significance of Lisl Steiner visit to Alicante.
Leónidas Spinelli, great architect in the genesis of PhotoAlicante, Miguel Hernández University of Elche (Alicante) Art Ph.D with an extraordinary doctoral thesis in 2013 titled " The Noise and the Fury " : Photography as a Discursive, Aesthetic and Ideological Model in the Marginal Young Environments " , can´t speak because of an overwhelming emotion.
A great enthusiast of photography, in which he started in 1998 in the Argentinian School of Photography and Photojournalism in TEA (Attelier, School, Buenos Aires Agency) and a freelance photojournalist during subsequent years, he began his studies in Arts after settling in Spain in 2001, being able to develop his great teaching ability and his zeal for art and the different audiovisual media. He likewise knows that today is a very special day, since Lisl Steiner´s both photographic and human dimension are reference-class.
Leónidas Spinelli is about to weep and tries to contain tears, but he can´t.
There have been many years of struggle and strenuous effort to turn PhotoAlicante into a living and dynamic space able to go through initial conceptions to reach new territories of expression and photographic creativity, by dint of spending a lot of hours, plucking up courage and tons of illusion, managing to bring Alicante the works of national and international prestigious photographers like Chema Madoz, Joan Fontcuberta, Mayte Vieta, Bleda y Rosa, Eulalia Valldosera, Hannah Collins and so on, along with other authors imbued with new ways of grasping photography, taking risks both in format and content.
Tears continue to flow. Such is the emotional intensity of the moment spawning osmosis among the whole audience, bursting into applause to cheer Leónidas Spinelli, fully congnizant of the remarkable value of Lisl Stiener´s pictures as embodiment of the concept of image value as an element building sense and meaning, as well as inducing to reflection.
Perhaps he never thought that he could be a fundamental part in the presentation of an internationally recognized and historical photographer, with whom he is now deservedly sharing table, and in the organization of her lecture and photographic exhibition " The Intuitive Lens of Lisl Steiner " , with a wisely chosen assortment of images belonging to her photographic project " The Children of the Americas ", together with other relevant pictures of her professional career as a photojournalist.
This way, the ongoing toil of so many years by Leónidas Spinelli, the arduous labour preparing his photographic exhibitions in cities like Alicante, Murcia, Jaén, Madrid, Bilbao, Buenos Aires, etc, the viewing of a myriad of portfolios and many more things, have paid off.
Already more relaxed and encouraged by the audience. Leónidas Spinelli pronounces a compelling speech welcoming Lisl Steiner, synthesizing in a masterful way the heap of circumstances which have branded for life the evolution of the Austrian-American photojournalist and how difficult is to ascribe her to a specific photographic genre, since her work is defined by a series of transformations and a hugely intense vital experience that placed her in different creative spaces, encompassing from the depiction of reality with the great expressive strength inherent to photojournalism to a versatile and uncommon creative ability having enabled her to strive after visualizing the invisible and changing the cultural context surrounding her.
Consequently, according to Photo Alicante Director, in Lisl Steiner´s photographic production it is possible to find both reality and fiction, and sometimes even illusion, always within the frame of the cultural context of each one of her stages as a photographer and artist and inextricably linked to the perceptive experience.
Leónidas Spinelli talking to Lisl Steiner shortly before the beginning of the lecture imparted by her.
Following it, Lisl Steiner starts her lecture titled " The Intuitive Lens of Lisl Steiner ", which is going to leave an indelible mark in every attendee.
The Austrian-American photographer describes how in 1938, being only ten years old, she had to flee Austria with her parents because of the invasion by Nazi troops, going to Trieste (Italy), where they embarked on a ship taking them to Buenos Aires (Argentina).
Lisl Steiner explains that it was there where she spent her adolescence and youth, working during fifties in the making of more than 50 documentary films, as well as integrating into the avant-garde group " MADI " and in the " FORUM " collective of the Argentinian capital.
But she tells that in mid fifties she realized that her true passion was photography, so she started since then to intensively devote to it, and after publishing in 1955 in Life magazine a picture she made of Argentinian president Aramburu fishing in Ushuaia (Patagonia), her work gained international fame, which was enhanced with her work as a photojournalist for other first-string illustrated publications like Time, Newsweek, The New York Times and others, in addition to being a correspondent for Keystone Press Agency.
All of it is reported by this unrepeatable woman in an unassuming way and in layman´s terms, with the humbleness featured by really great persons.
And as it couldn´t be other way, her words inflame the heart of all the visitors to the event,
who being bowled over, listen every and each of her words with utmost attention.
Now, Lisl Steiner starts speaking about the great freedom and leeway she enjoyed on getting her pictures during her very extensive professional career path, with keynotes based on the ideas set forth by the Spanish painter Juan Gris, whose fundamental tenet was that the greatest liberty lies in improvisation.
Suddenly, Lisl Steiner´s speech enters a new stage, contending that she had never any formal teaching in photography and that she never went to any school of photography whatsoever, so right off the bat, she had to get her pictures with her guts, her heart, perseverance and experience.
But she also proclaims that from the very moment she began making pictures in mid fifties, there has been a vital constant in her existence :
each time she was about to create an image, she went into a kind of hypnotic trance, particularly if what she saw in front of her was interesting and transmitted something.
Silence is absolute inside the Hub Hall of Alicante University Museum, while the abundant public eagerly listen to the words pronounced by Lisl Steiner,
who on her turn pays top attention to Leónidas Spinelli and Catalina Iliescu´s words, establishing frequent dialogue with them, as well as answering the questions asked by the audience,
spellbound not only by all the exceedingly interesting things narrated by Lisl Steiner, but also by the very straightforward and entertaining way in which she conveys it, since this unique woman is likewise an outstanding communicator knowing how to touch people´s hearts.
It is then when some major images made by Lisl Steiner are projected on the screen, beginning with a picture showing Jorge Luis Borges with a cat in Buenos Aires in 1962.
Lisl explains how the strong character of the Argentinian writer, a key figure of universal literature, made that more often than not treatment with him wasn´t easy, so sometimes you could only obtain images of him after insisting and persevering for many days, but effort and wait were worthy, because he was a fascinating man and a very interesting human being from a photographic viewpoint, to such an extent that this image was part of a three days session for Time magazine made in the Argentinian capital.
After this, a picture of a Jewish boy made by Lisl Steiner in a street of New York in 1963 appears in the screen.
It is a commendable image, captured by Lisl Steiner from a very near distance of roughly 2 meters, with her Leica M3 and Leitz Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 lens, choosing a vertical frame, which makes discretion more difficult during the photographic act, managing to capture the boy, engrossed in his thoughts, going unnoticed, in spite of being an utterly perpendicular shot with respect to the kid´s face.
Lisl recollects that he was a Hassidic boy surrounded by relatives during a demonstration in support of Lyndon Johnson as a candidate to President of the United States, and that the key factor was being able to approach him to get the picture.
A few seconds later, a further image made by Lisl Steiner during mid fifties in Paraguay street of Buenos Aires is projected on the screen : it is a wall full of electoral advertisements, while the lower area of the frame shows a boy grabbing a toy pistol as an allegoric message to the prevailing violence of the time.
Lisl Steiner explains that specially at late fifties and decade of sixties, she travelled to many Latin American countries and could see live a lot of violence contexts, deep social inequalities, misery, etc, always taking a stand against it and trying to capture it with her camera.
She also comments that all those tremendous social contrasts seemed her very harmful and unfair at every level, and that she could see how it particularly affected the children, so she decided to start her photographic project " The Children of the Americas " in 1959, after getting up steam to achieve (at the behest of her on August 15 of that year in Santiago de Chile) that the most important presidents of Latin American countries signed a document in which they committed themselves to defend the rights of children in that area of the world.
At this moment, once more, the lecture " The Intuitive Lens of Lisl Steiner enters a new phase, when during some seconds the Austrian-American photojournalist countenance reflects her rage and wrath on stating that nowadays in many countries of Latin America, a significant percentage of children keep on suffering misery, malnutrition, violence, labour exploitation and necessity of looking for things to sell inside garbage dumps to be able to survive.
Lisl explains that in the present international context, wars, eagerness, vanity, selfishness, the everything running and so forth, prevail, and meanwhile, hundreds of million children all over the world suffer from famine, thirst and misery.
Thereupon, she proclaims that the most significant goal of her visit to Alicante is to leverage her photographic project " The Children of the Americas " to give voice to those children she photographed in different Latin American countries between 1959, seventies, eighties and early nineties.
The attendees go on amazed listening to the speech delivered by Lisl Steiner, who is putting her soul in every word coming out of her mouth.
It´s a speech that makes and will keep on making ponder to every attendee.
Historical moments are being lived inside the Cub Hall of the Alicante University Museum, bringing about a massive collective enthusiasm stemming from the greatness of Lisl Steiner, a living myth in the history of photography, filling the hearts of the scores of attending people and begetting irrepressible feelings of admiration, in symbiosis with the tenderness inspired by this wonderful woman.
That´s why when Lisl finishes her speech and thanks the audience overcrowding the hall, all and sundry, both the sitting and the standing ones, clap intensely, immersed in a thunderous ovation,
who makes the 94 year old goddess feel really thrilled, striving upon holding her tears back.
But some of them flow.
These are instants of great happiness for Lisl Steiner, who perceives the sincere fondness and boundless love of the whole audience.
Because it is a goddess who has spoken to them and so is understood by the abundant attendees, who keep on bursting into applause for some minutes, utterly devoted to her.
Buenos Aires, Nueva York, Vienna, Bratislava, Linz, Cerro Muriano, etc, felt this before.
Now it is Alicante which gives itself up to her.
The applause and cheers continue to unceasingly resound inside the Cub Hall of Alicante University Museum, while Lisl Steiner (who has just signed in the honour visitors´ book) poses next to Flor Mayoral, Leónidas Spinelli, Marcelo Llobell and Catalina Iliescu, whose facial expressions show bliss and satisfaction for well done things.
ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITIONS EVER
After Lisl Steiner´s lecture, it was time for the premiere of the photographic exhibition " The Intuitive Lens of Lisl Steiner ", with images of her photographic project The Children of the Americas, made between 1959 and seventies, together with some highly representative pictures of Lisl Steiner´s career as a photojournalist.
From left to right : Leónidas Spinelli, Catalina Iliescu, Marcelo Llobell, Flor Mayoral and Lisl Steiner posing for the cameras at the moment of presentation of the photographic exhibition with images of the Austrian-American photojournalist.
Catalina Iliescu during her presentation speech of the photographic exhibition " The Intuitive Lens of Lisl Steiner ", surrounded by Flor Mayoral, Leónidas Spinelli, Marcelo Llobell and Lisl Steiner. In the background can be seen a portrait of Lisl Steiner holding a Leica M3 between her hands.
Far from going away after the previous lecture, the abundant attendees remained inside the facilities of the Alicante University Musem to watch the inauguration of the photographic exhibition " The Intuitive Lens of Lisl Steiner ", whose main course were the pictures of his photographic project " The Children of the Americas " .
Here we can see part of the audience listening to Catalina Iliescu´s speech.
Another moment of Catalina Iliescu´s speech, with Flor mayoral, Leónidas Spinelli, Marcelo Llobell and Lisl Steiner around her, while Clemens Kneringer shoots the scene.
Some minutes later, the audience applaud just after Catalina Iliescu´s speech.
It´s now when one of the most important moments of the day arrives, with the inauguration speech of the photographic exhibition " The Intuitive Lens of Lisl Steiner " with images of her photographic project " The Children of the Americas " by Flor Mayoral (Vice President of the Board of Trustees of DORCAM Museum in Doral, Miami, United States).
After thanking Lisl Steiner for her effort travelling from New York to Alicante, Flor Mayoral ( a recognized photographer, author among others of the exhibition " Transgressing Frontiers " , presented in 2015 in the Fototeca of Cuba, the international photographic project " Silence Project" which began in 2007 and of excellent portraits of Mario Vargas Llosa in silence, in addition to being a great expert in fostering the participation of the public to observe pictures and interpret the emotions of the photographed people, as a result of the implementation of a visual symphony of silence) delivers a far-reaching speech based on two fundamental core concepts : the pretty distinctive photographic eye of Lisl Steiner and her inexhaustible energy, not only creating images, but also in other fields of her life.
These two new concepts introduced by Flor Mayoral regarding the analysis of Lisl Steiner´s photographic production and her personality, define straight out a new tipping point in this historical photographic day inside the Alicante University Museum.
The recognized Cuban photographer explains in detail that intuition and energy have always had a sway over the images created by Lisl Steiner since mid fifties hitherto.
Flor Mayoral explains that because of different circumstances, Lisl Steiner hadn´t been able to show her photographic project " The Children of the Americas " until now, and delves into the great humanity emanating from these images of human beings in their chilhood and most times living in very hard conditions, so Lisl Steiner also used her cameras as a weapon to express her firm protest against this situation and shed light on it, because the Austrian-American photojournalist has often stated her conviction that every child deserves a beautiful life and that they are the world future.
The Cuban photographer and Vice President of the Board of Directors of the DORCAM Doral Contemporary Museum likewise expresses her certainty that Lisl Steiner always got her pictures with her heart and an uncanny improvisation ability.
The attendees fervently burst into applause and express their gratitude for the unforgettable and once in a lifetime moments that are being lived and will undoubtedly increase their love for photography and art. It´s difficult to explain with words the collective frenzy which is being collectively experienced at the moment within the University of Alicante Museum.
It´s 20:00 pm.
An hour and forty minutes have elapsed since the beginning of the lecture inside the Cub Hall of the Alicante University Museum which took place prior to this photographic exhibition.
But people don´t want to go away. They wish to keep on on seeing Lisl Steiner live, as close as possible to her, so Marcelo Llobell and Flor Mayoral are going to need to push Lisl Steiner on her wheelchair during one more hour, since Lisl is very happy, surrounded by a lot of people who are expressing her their love and sincere affection, and she wants to explain them aspects, details and experiences of the pictures filling the walls of the hall where her exhibition is being held.
Lisl Steiner shows the audience the famous photograph she made at Times Square in New York on November 22, 1963 of a lot of sad people after reading newspapers in which was reported the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, President of the United States.
An impressive photograph in which Lisl Steiner previously configured her Leica M2 camera with Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 at f/11 to get maximum feasible depth of field, so the area of sharpness spreads from the lower border of the image to its upper zone, in such a way that the facial traits of every person inside the frame is discernible.
Lisl Steiner lavishly explains now a lot of sides of a picture she made of Pablo Neruda in Chile in 1959.
Lisl Steiner keeps on advancing inside the hall. Here she provides the attendees with information on a colour drawing she made in early sixties alluding to her photographic project " The Children of the Americas " that she had started in 1959.
It´s 20:30 h in the night and people don´t want to go away for having dinner. They crave for keeping on listening to Lisl Steiner, who remembers here the instant in which she got a colour picture of a very young Peruvian girl sitting on a grass ridge over the ruins of Macchu Pichu in April of 1969.
Flor Mayoral helping Lisl Steiner while the Austrian-American photographer continues to explain details of her photographs to the abundant people attending the event.
Text of the Chilean poetress Gabriela Mistral referring to the need to help children during their growing stage. It inspired Lisl Steiner in 1959 for the inception of her photographic project " The Children of the Americas ".
On August 15, 1959 Lisl Steiner made the presidents of Latin American countries sign a manifest supporting the photographic project " The Children of the Americas ", along with an exhibition with that aim which would have to be celebrated in November of that year.
One of the attendees to the photographic exhibition " The Intuitive Lens of Lisl Steiner " beholds another image of Lisl Steiner belonging to her photographic project " The Children of the Americas " in which appears an Argentinian girl that she photographed covering her face while she was playing hide-and-seek in Buenos Aires in 1957.
The interest aroused among visitors by this landmark photographic exhibition was huge.
Child running inside a courtyard of dwellings in a poor neighbourhood of Montevideo (Uruguay). 1959. Lisl Steiner masterfully uses a Leica M2 coupled to a Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 lens Versión 1 SAWOM and configured by her at f/11 to obtain maximum depth of field.
It´s a very fast and instintive shot in which with astonishing skill, Lisl draws the full potential of a rangefinder camera previously sttled to optimize sharpness through the efficient symbiosis between the great depth of field inherent to a wideangle lens and the extensive sharpness area attained with the camera in hyperfocal, encompassing from the lower zone of the image to its upper area beyond the last ropes with hanging clothes.
That´s to say, Lisl simply uses the photographic gear better fitting her very fast and instinctive photographing style, knowing perfectly that there isn´t and there won´t be any electronic autofocus quicker than the natural AF of a rangefinder camera previously configured in hyperfocal, enabling to get the picture with utmost speed.
This way, she has captured the child visible on the right with both of his feet in the air, providing the image with a great feeling of motion, in stark contrast to the stillness of the filthy and very old abodes appearing in the left half of the image, the rather torn out stone accessing stairs to them, the clothes hanging from the ropes and the woman drying garments who can be glimpsed some meters behind the child.
The timing accuracy on pressing the shutter release button of her Leica M2 by Lisl Steiner, capturing the child running while staring something which draws his attention, is simply breathtaking and brings to light a huge natural talent for photography.
It´s what the historian of photography William Manchester called essential instinct for the capturing of great pictures, something that can´t be learnt, you are born with it, and rests above all in the possession of an intuitive gift to thoroughly know when pressing the shutter realease button of the camera, a scope in which there have been other prominent historical specialists like Henri Carier-Bresson, Marc Riboud, Werner Bischof, René Burri and so forth.
On the other hand, Lisl Steiner is successful attaining her fundamental aim with this image:
to use it as an expressive medium to protest against injustice and rampant misery in a number of Latin American countries of the time.
But simultaneously, the running child photographed in full flight conveys the message that in spite of the extreme poverty of his habitat, which is particularly visible in the very dirty and chipped floor under his feet, he is free.
Superb photograph made by Lisl Steiner on the steps of the the Church of Santo Tomás in Chichicastenango (Guatemala) in 1957.
The Austrian-American photojournalist makes an incredible shot, from a very near distance of approximately 3 meters and perpendicular to the knelt young boy and his smaller sister whom he is taking on his shoulder, with her Leica M3 and Summicron-M 50 mm f/2, probably at f/4, slightly rendering the background of the image out of focus and highlighting the two main characters of the scene.
Lisl gets this picture a few seconds after making a previous horizontal photograph of the same boy and little sister and in which the big stone steps of the stairs are much more visible.
But to do the vertical shot going unnoticed is something in the frontier of the impossible, because both the boy and his small sister are just in front of Lisl Steiner at the moment of the photographic act, at a very close distance of around 2,5 meters.
But Lisl Steiner´s photographing style is, as has frequently been explained by Flor Mayoral, everything instinct, improvisation and inexhaustible energy, with abundant nuances of genius, and after realizing that the boy, apparently tired, is engrossed in his thoughts while kneeling to unload her sister (who, in her turn is looking towards one side, with her sight focused on something that is sparking her curiosity), Lisl decides to make a vertical shot, so not being detected is much more difficult than with a horizontal frame shooting with a 24 x 36 mm format camera or shooting with a 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 medium format one (as did Eileen Darby with her 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 square format Rolleiflex in late October of 1945, getting a totally frontal picture, almost at point blank range of the sailor Calvin Mathhews form the U.S.S Portland sitting on a terrace of Central Park, New York, drinking a glass with soda, and which made the cover of Life magazine on November 5, 1945), because she has to raise her arm upwards and fold it in an angle of roughly 90º.
Therefore, in spite of the huge dificulty to get the picture with an upright framing while she is just in front of both siblings, at a very near distance, Lisl Steiner manages to fulfill the dream of every good photojournalist : to become invisible during the photographic act, going unnoticed, creating an exceedingly beautiful image, full of spontaneity and admirably synthesizing the essence of an ancient culture and its fight for survival.
Young Yanomami girl on a hammock inside the Amazon Jungle of Mato Grosso (Brazil) manufacturing an arrow in a handcrafted way. Lisl captures a magic moment, once more with great discretion and respect, going unnoticed, photographing the girl with a Leica M3 and Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 lens, probably at f/5.6 from a distance of approximately four meters.
Furthermore, Lisl perceives that the top quality natural light coming from the left falls upon the face, arms and hands of the girl ( absorbed in her labour), providing the image with volume and three dimensional character, resulting in a photograph sumptuosly revealing the extraordinary beauty of the native peoples of the Brazilian Amazon Basin and their way of life.
Marcelo Llobell hugging Leónidas Spinelli (Director of PhotoAlicante). Events like this already historical photographic exhibition are decisive, among many other things, to strengthen sincere friendships enduring the whole life.
Little girl photographed by Lisl Steiner in the village of Río Cuarto (Argentine) in 1957.
A very hard photograph in which can be seen the girl downtrodden in an extreme poverty.
Her short sleeved jersey is literally tattered, very dirty and worn out, in the same way as her bedraggled hair, and she is taking with her a sack in which she introduces everything she can find to survive.
Once more, with a commendable vertical framing, Lisl Steiner approaches the girl and photographs her with great respect and unobtrusively, going unnoticed, making the most of a split second in which the girl looks at one side while using the fingers of her right hand to detach the very dirty jersey that is stuck to her skin by the sweat.
Probably these are the only clothes this girl has, and perhaps she has been for some days without being able to wash herself, so Lisl Steiner wants to convey with this image her protest and the concept that this is something unbearable and a shame for the world.
Sublime portrait of a barefoot and dirty Aymara little girl beside a stone wall featuring an antiquity of many centuries in La Paz (Bolivia) in 1962.
As well as being a consummate expert in the creation of images with 24 x 36 mm rangefinder cameras that she used during her whole career as a professional photographer, Lisl Steiner also used often 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 medium format cameras, whose surface of negative four times larger than the standard 35 mm, made possible to obtain a superior image quality and better tonal range, as happens in this very nice picture in which she used a Rolleiflex 3.5F Model 3 with Carl Zeiss Jena Planar 75 mm f/3.5 at its widest aperture with Ektachrome E-2 ISO 25 film.
It is an image oozing great sensitivity before the beauty of the ancient cultures of Latin American and their evolution through time.
The wise use of the widest aperture of the lens by the photographer enables to highlight the exceedingly pretty little girl in her biotope, surrounded by big stones having been the architectonic gist of her forebears throughout many centuries.
Needless to say that the smart composition placing the little girl on the right half of the image, framed by different depth of field planes in which prevail the out of focus areas bringing about a very nice bokeh in synergy with an exquisite rendering of the tonal transitions, clearly reveal that Lisl Steiner is not only a great photojournalist and documentalist able to capture defining moments once and again, but also a great artist with outstanding flair to touch the heart and sensible fiber of each observer of her images, as a corollary of the universal language that photography is.
Portrait of a child within his bedroom in Washington, D.C in mid sixties. Behind him there´s a poster in which can be read : " Due to technical difficulties, tomorrow has been postponed indefinitely ".
Once more, Lisl Steiner protests with this image against contexts making children suffer all kind of hardships throughout their infancy.
Extraordinary picture made by Lisl Steiner in Dominican Republic in August 1968 of two boys playing baseball in the street.
Lisl Steiner uses masterfully her Leica M2 with Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 to capture with stunning precision the moment in which one of the boys performs as a pitcher and throws the ball ( two thirds of which are visible on the left border of the image) with great strength. The photographer has probably configured her camera at f/11 to get extensive depth of field, in such a way that the sharpness area spreads over the whole surface of the image, from the foreground to the wall visible in the right background.
Once more, Lisl Steiner takes advantage of the photographing gear better fitting the kind of pictures she makes, since rangefinder cameras lack any mirror and sport much more stability than reflex ones featuring a swivelling mirror, so handheld shots can be done up to approximately 1/8 s, unlike a reflex camera which needs faster shutter speeds to avoid trepidation.
Besides, when you get a picture with a rangefinder camera, there isn´t any blackout in the viewfinder on pressing the shutter release button.
The photographer has selected a slow shutter speed, capturing with great proficiency the moving right arm (which appears blurred) of the Dominican boy hurling the ball, bent in roughly 90º to be able to keep balance and with his right hand also blurred (in the same way as the left one), revealing the biceps of the boy, whose impressive athleticism and strength for his age is depicted in all of its splendour.
The context is of deep poverty, visible in both the chipped and very dirty wall in the right background and in the border of the sidewalk near them, without forgetting that both boys are barefoot.
Lisl Steiner manages to shape up an image exuding great dynamism by means of the majestic and incredibly accurate capturing of the boy movement just at the moment in which he powerfully throws the ball, bent forward because of the effort and in symbiosis with his mate, who appears paying great attention, waiting to see if the batter hits the ball or it is received by the catcher.
In addition, the photograph introduces a further highly symbolic element in the composition: the half-closed door visible on the left of the image, hinting the sporting option of future, diachronically embodied by great Dominican baseball players who were successful in United States like Juan Marichal, Sammy Sosa, Pedro Martínez, David Ortiz, Alberto Pujols, José Bautista, Robinson Cano, Vladimir Guerrero, Adrián Beltré and others.
Lisl Steiner during early seventies in New York, posing with two 24 x 36 mm format rangefinder cameras : a Contax IIa Stuttgart (made between 1954 and 1961) with Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 85 mm f/2 and a Leica M2 ( given away to her by Nat Fein, Pulitzer Photography Award in 1949) with Super Angulon-M 21 mm f/3.4 lens.
The photographer, featuring a very instinctive and improvised style on getting pictures, isn´t particularly interested in the technological aspects of cameras, but chooses them according to her needs and the kind of photography she does.
That´s why following the advice of his great friend Alfred Eisenstaedt, she acquired a Contax IIa camera in early seventies, knowing that aside from being a bang for the buck at the time, its vertically travelling planofocal metallic shutter had been very improved and was much more reliable than the one featured by its predecessor Contax II from 1936, could reach a shutter speed of 1/250 s and above all, its great length of RF effective base of 73 mm ( much larger than the 49.32 mm of her Leica M2) made possible to focus with far superior accuracy lenses between 75 and 135 mm, always understanding that Lisl Steiner made vast majority of her photographs throughout her professional career with 35 mm and 50 mm lenses, always having as top priority the utter fulfillment of Alfred Eisenstaedt´s (92 covers in Life magazine) tenet : " It´s more important to click with people than to click the shutter ".
Lisl used this 24 x 36 mm format Contax IIa rangefinder camera most times attached to a superb 7 elements in 3 groups Zeiss-Opton Sonnar 85 mm f/2 lens, designed by Ludwig Bertele in 1950, which was an improvement of his already mythical Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 8,5 cm f/2 from 1933, sharing the same number of elements and groups and featuring the same single-layer T coating used since 1946, but providing a new 12 blades diaphragm getting gorgeous bokeh, so Lisl made good use of it for portraits, since it was the best lens in the world at the time in this scope together with the 6 elements in 5 groups Summicron-M 90mm f/2 Version II designed by Walter Mandler and the 6 elements in 6 groups Takumar SMC 85 mm f/1.8 from 1972.
Pensive boy sitting and bent on the back of a chair at the Café Fígaro in Greenwich Village, New York, while a couple of adults behind him peruse the menu.
Lisl photographs the boy engrossed in his thoughts, approaching him as much as possible with her Leica M2 and Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 Version 1 SAWOM, with great stealth and going unnoticed, making a very fast shot with vertical framing, probably at f/4, rendering the background slightly out of focus.
Besides, the photographer obtains an outstanding three dimensional effect, making the most of the light coming from the left of the image.
Image in which Lisl Steiner captures a mother and her daughter inside a New York subway wagon in early seventies.
The photographer approaches both of them as much as possible, unobtrusively, and makes a very praiseworthy frontal shot with respect to them, capturing the child being absent-minded and sitting with her legs stretch on the seat.
The photographer chooses to make a vertical framing with her Leica M2 and Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 lens, whose wideangle nature makes that she can´t get closer if she wants to go unnoticed, managing to attain it, in spite of the fact that the child is almost perpendicular to her.
Lisl, who has the camera configured to f/8 or f/11, makes a very quick and instinctive shot, just at the adequate moment, capturing the child in a meaningful instant, in addition to obtaining great depth of field and depicting the contrast between the static position of the child with her legs stretched and the mother who meanwhile is opening her handbag in a normal position, with her legs on the wagon floor.
With this image, Lisl joins a domain of photograph inside the New York subway that had been pioneered by a 19 years old Stanley Kubrick during two weeks in 1946 in the reportage he made with a 24 x 36 mm format Contax II for Look magazine with mostly horizontal pictures.
But doing this type of photographs with an upright framing is much more difficult and commendable, because chances to be detected increase very much and shooting stability is lower than with a horizontal shot leaning both arms on the body.
20:55 pm. Three visitors of the exhibition watch two of Lisl Steiner´s pictures : one made within the Amazonian Jungle of Mato Grosso (Brazil) in 1960 of a boy smoking next to large sugar cane plants, and another one made in a square of the city of Antigua, in the south of Guatemala, in 1957, of a little girl standing and clad in white garments beside a column, while she holds a bag with her right hand.
Another fabulous photograph made by Lisl Steiner, capturing a group of deaf children during a visit to a pet shop in mid sixties.
True to form, the Austrian-American photographer makes an incredible frontal shot, perpendicular to the photographed persons and from an incredibly close distance, opting for a vertical framing, capturing the five children and the two women accompanying them unaware, so they don´t detect her presence.
It´s an exceedingly fast shot, made by Lisl with impressive accuracy in the timing on pressing the release button of the horizontal travelling planofocal shutter of her Leica M2 with Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 just at an instant in which all the characters of the image are looking at one of the pets of the shop with great illusion and joy.
Spectacular the capture of elation in the facial expressions of the children accomplished by the photographer, who makes a very close vertical framing delimitated by the awnings appearing in the upper area of the image.
It´s a picture conceptually linked to the string of photographs with children (most of them horizontal and some other ones being vertical) made by Alfred Eisenstaedt in 1963 capturing with his Leica their countenances during a performance of St John and the Dragon play at the Puppet Theatre of the Tuileries in Paris.
Lisl Steiner in her purest form, capturing the facial expression of a teenager inside a shop in Brazil in 1969.
It is another impressive shot, utterly frontal, with a horizontal framing, in which Lisl Steiner becomes invisible, manages to go unnoticed, in spite of being approximately only at approximately 2.5 m from the boy, and captures his countenance showing concern and uncertain future, in stark contrast to the slightly out of focus man on the left of the image, focused on his labour.
The use of a wide diaphragm, probably f/2.8, by the photographer makes that only the face and torso of the boy are in focus, while Kodachrome 25 film (whose use shooting handheld without trepidation has been possible thanks to the lack of swivelling mirror of the Leica M3 with Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 used) provides the image with a great realism.
However incredible it may seem, the main character of the image doesn´t perceive at any moment that is being photographed by Lisl and doesn´t see her either.
In my opinion, images like this are every bit as good as pictures made by the foremost photographers in the history of Magnum Agency and corroborate the aforism " The Picture Must Contain The Humanity of the Moment " couched by Robert Frank.
21:00 pm. Lisl Steiner, accompanied by Marcelo Llobell and Flor Mayoral, greets Dieter, German teacher of the director of DORCAM Museum in Doral, Miami.
Lisl Steiner signing a copy of the excellent exhibition catalogue, edited by Leónidas Spinelli, coordinated by the Observatory of Audiovisual Communication and Publicity UHM, with a superb quality of reproduction of the images on paper made from original negatives, and texts by Ingrid Rockefeller, Lisl Steiner, Leónidas Spinelli, Flor Mayoral and Marcelo Llobell.
Little girl photographed by Lisl Steiner during mid sixties in a square of the small city of Antigua, in the south of Guatemala.
With great sensitivity, the photographer captures the naivety and innocence of the absent-minded little girl, who is standing beside a column, while holding a large bag with her right hand.
Once and again, Lisl Steiner, with remarkable talent and intuition, manages to do exceedingly fast totally frontal shots with vertical framings, from a very near distance, going unnoticed, to such an extent that the little girl, immersed in her thoughts, doesn´t realize that Lisl (who probably uses f/4, rendering the background out of focus and framing the little girl between the two columns, to turn her as much as possible into the leading character of the scene) has just photographed her.
© Lisl Steiner The Intuitive Lens
A Yanomami boy caressing a jaguar cub in an area of the Mato Grosso Amazonic jungle (Brazil) in 1960.
Lisl Steiner captures in this image the full integration with nature and fauna of the ancient native Amazonic cultures, frequently tainted by the unlimited eagerness of big corporations intensively exploiting natural resources, not hesitating about degrading them and destroying the biotope of these tribes if they get an economical benefit doing it, a dynamics against which Lisl Steiner constantly rose up.
Very nice image in which Lisl Steiner captured in April of 1969 a little Peruvian girl sitting on a small ridge over the ruins of the old city of Machu Pichu.
The photographer devises a composition pervaded by subtlety and symbology, with the little girl in focus on the left of the image and the remnants of Machu Pichu and the mountains surrounding it in the background, slightly out of focus, and shoots her Leica M2 with Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 Versión 1 SAWOM and Kodak Ektachrome E-2 ISO 160 colour film, probably at f/2.8.
It´s an image exuding love for roots and refers to the prevalence in time of the Inca civilization and one of its most famous strongholds, a true masterpiece of architecture and engineering, in addition to also portray the continuity in time of the indigenous peoples who have dwelt the area for many years.
Images like this one verify Eve Arnold´s keynote " It´s the photographer and not the camera the photographic instrument " set forth by her during sixties and Elliott Erwitt´s axiom " The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don´t have to explain things with words " .
21:12 p.m. Everybody wants to be photographed with Lisl Steiner and have a beautiful remembrance of this historical and unforgettable day. Here she is surrounded by Catalina Iliescu, Remedios Navarro, Sofía Martín, Rosa Cuadrado and many attendees to this milestone photographic exhibition.
People keep on without any desire to go away, and Lisl Steiner, who is already very tired, goes on signing exhibition catalogues and smiling everybody.
More and more people join the group photographs with Lisl Steiner, in the midst of an indescribable melting pot of emotions.
It´s 21:15 p.m of March 3, 2022. The inauguration of Lisl Steiner´s exhibition inside the Alicante University Museum has just ended. Marcelo Llobell, Flor Mayoral and Leónidas Spinelli pose happy beside the Austrian-American photographer.
After a strenuous preparation toil of some months, they have been the main architects of both Lisl Steiner´s lecture that opened the day and the extraordinary photographic exhibition with her images.
Lisl Steiner posing before the cameras with Marcelo Llobell, Flor Mayoral and Karstein Lohne, also a great friend of Lisl´s.
BEYOND DEATH
March 12, 1938. Hitler invades Austria and proclaims the Anchluss, fusing the country with Nazi Germany.
From that moment on, months elapse in the middle of great stress, with the Viennese population from Jewish descent increasingly suffering the antisemitism of Nazi Germany, until situation starts being unbearable.
The insight of Arnold Steiner, a 46 years old trader from Jewish descent, born in Raab (district of Schärding, Austria),
who has a little ten years old daughter called Lisl Steiner, makes him realize that Nazis will try to exterminate the Jews of Vienna as soon as they can.
Therefore, Arnold Steiner visits different times, during July and August of 1938, the Central Office of Jewish Emigration in Vienna, until he gets the papers to be able to abandon Austria with his family.
In some of those visits and after waiting in unending queues of many hours, Arnold Steiner has walked at very few meters from the office of Adolf Eichmann, main driving force of the " Final Solution " that would be incepted four years later, on January 20, 1942, at the Wansee Conference in the outskirts of Berlin.
This way, Arnold Steiner flees Vienna On September 12, 1938, travelling by train with his 38 year old wife Katherina Steiner (likewise from Jewish descent, born in Goedin, Hungary) and histtle 10 years old daughter Lisl Steiner (born in Vienna in 1928) towards Trieste (Italy), where they buy three tickets for the 19,500 tonnes ship
Oceania, of the naval firm Cosulich Lloyd Triestino,
which leaves for Buenos Aires (Argentina) on September 19, 1938.
A seven days voyage in which they talk on board of the liner specially to Mendel Sternberg, Leo Neumann, Adele Neumann, Isak Eizig Schleider, Chane Schleider, Hans Bazar, Emma Bauer, Wilhelm Hift, Schja Schonfeld, Sure Schonfeld and Fritz Barak, and after doing stopovers at Spalato, Patras, Naples, Gibraltar, Pernambuco, Bahía, Rio do Janeiro, Santos, Río Grande do Sur and Montevideo, they arrive in Buenos Aires on September, 26 of that year.
Very nice colour poster of the liner Oceania belonging to the naval firm Cosulich Lloyd Triestino, in which after fleeing Vienna in trhe power of Nazis, Lisl Steiner and her parents Arnold and Katherina departed from Trieste (Italy) on September 19, 1938 and arrived in Buenos Aires (Argentina) on September 26 of that year.
Arnold Steiner, who always excelled at taking wise decisions, has managed to save from a sure dead not only himself, but also his wife Katherine and his daughter Lisl Steiner, because only three years later, between the autumn of 1941 and the spring of 1942, Adolf Eichmann will order the mass deportation of the 200,000 Viennese Jews to Riga, Kovno, Vilna and Minsk, where they will be assassinated by the Einsatzgruppen, Nazi mobile slaughtering teams, while some thousands more will be sent to the Lodz guetto and the Theresienstaedt concentration camp, where they all will be also assassinated.
Lapel badge of the captain of Oceania liner belonging to the firm Cosulich Lloyd Triestino that took Lisl Steiner and her parents Arnold Steiner and Katherina from Trieste (Italy) to Buenos Aires (Argentina) between September 19 and 26, 1938.
84 years after that trip of Lisl Steiner with her parents from Trieste to Buenos Aires that saved her from death, and five years after the foundation of the DORCAM Museum of Contemporary Art in Doral (United States), the brilliant initiative implemented by Marcelo Llobell and Flor Mayoral ( two very experienced persons in the scope of arts and photography, as well as committed advocates of both the museistic integration of all kind of disciplines and the enhancement of the art in public spaces, something they deem fundamental) in symbiosis with Leónidas Spinelli, the Alicante University and the excellent material provided by Ingrid Rockefeller, have made possible to greatly rescue from oblivion the fascinating images of one of the most significant photographic projects in the History of Photography : " The Children of the Americas " by Lisl Steiner, within the exhibition The Intuitive Lens of Lisl Steiner.
A dream come true,
after many years of path.
Furthermore, this remarkable photographic display inaugurated inside the Alicante University Museum on March 3, 2021 and that will be open until April 3, 2022 has been very important because Lisl Steiner has felt first hand the huge love of both the persons who have been helping her for many years and the abundant attending audience who crammed the halls where the lecture and the photographic exhibition took place.
All of it will have undoubtedly mean a great morale boost for Lisl Steiner, in addition to having given her a lot of life, energy and desire to go on living and relishing photography, the travels, the people who are infatuated with her, the events with her images, the sincere love of audiences and so forth.
Because this exceptional woman will never die, since she transcends the concept of demise, and when she isn´t on earth any more, she will go on very alive in the hearts of every person who had the great luck of meeting her.
AN IMAGE DEFINING THE HUGE INTENSITY AND COMMITMENT WITH WHICH LISL STEINER LIVED PHOTOGRAPHY
The relevance of the fabulous photographic exhibition " The Intuitive Lens of Lisl Steiner " held inside the Alicante Museum was even greater than previously explained, because its excellent 54 page catalogue, edited by Leónidas Spinelli and the Association of Contemporary Authors, with texts by Ingrid Rockefeller, Lisl Steiner, Leónidas Spinelli, Flor Mayoral and Marcello Llobell, included a picture in which appears Lisl Steiner during her first photographic mission in December of 1955 in Argentina, whose main aspects could be discovered with a lot of slog shortly after that milestone exhibition inside the Cub Room of the Alicante University.
17 years have elapsed since Lisl Steiner got away with her parents Arnold and Katherina in 1938 from Vienna (Austria), which had been occupied by Nazi Germany, and arrived in Buenos Aires (Argentina) on September 26, 1938 on board of the Italian Cosulich naval company Oceania liner, which had departed from Trieste (Italy) on September 19 of that year.
From late forties and first half of fifties, Lisl Steiner had worked in Buenos Aires as a production assistant in fifty documentary films about Argentina, along with some feature films, as well as strengthening her friendship with the actress Paola Loew.
She has decided to become a photographer a few months before, because she feels that it is her true passion.
In early December 1955 she is reported that there will be an act with presence of President Pedro Eugenio Aramburu together with military top brass and ministers within the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral.
She knows that relevant historical moments are being lived and feels the need to photograph them.
Lisl Steiner, with her customary courage and perseverence, manages to get into the act and makes her way through the high ranking military officers and ministers who advance across the inner starting area of the cathedral, until being situated behind President Aramburu, roughly 1,5 m on his right, instant that is captured by another photographer, who from a vantage point, gets a vertical picture including all the persons walking and the soldiers saluting them from both sides, while in the background of the image you can see a military band playing music.
It is an exceedingly meaningful image, because Lisl Steiner´s countenance clearly shows that she is utterly concentrated, striving upon going unnoticed and doing her best to be as close as possible from general Aramburu, with the aim of making photographs of both him and his entourage from the best feasible positions when they stop their march.
Lisl Steiner features a remarkable photojournalistic flair for being at the ideal place and the most adequate instant, approaching as much as possible, with an unswerving priority : to get the picture, irrespective of any considerations regarding the technical perfection of images.
The pictures made by Lisl Steiner during this event fifty-seven years ago haven´t been preserved, but the image made by a fellow photographer who was also inside the cathedral, distinctly unveils that she is a wholehearted instinctive and intuitive photographer, always fighting for not being detected and getting defining images from the shortest distances.
On the other hand, the photographic gear worn by her is likewise very interesting and chosen according to the kind of work she fulfills :
a) A 24 x 36 mm format Leica M3 rangefinder camera coupled to a collapsible Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 featuring 7 elements in 6 groups and 10 diaphragm blades and ITDOO shade.
b) A 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 medium format Rolleiflex Automat Model 3 camera (manufactured between 1937 and 1956) with Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 75 mm f/3.5 lens.
Both cameras and lenses are formidable photographic tools for the sort of photojournalism made by Lisl, in which agility, timing accuracy on pressing the shutter release button of the camera and speed on shooting are key factors.
The Leica M3 features a weight of only 581 g (very small and light for the time being) and on lacking any swivelling mirror, it has a remarkable stability shooting handheld, being able to get sharp images without trepidation up to approximately 1/15 s, sometimes even less.
And the collapsible Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 lens (1954-1968) is at the moment the best standard lens for 24 x 36 mm format on earth (after its birth in 1953, a year before the Photokina Köln 1954 in which the Leica M3 camera was introduced), occupying the throne that until then had been held for twenty-two years by the also extraordinary Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 5 cm f/1.5 designed by the genius Ludwig Bertele in 1932.
Advertisement of the Leica M3 inside an American Popular Photography magazine from 1955. It had appeared a year before, during the Photokina Köln 1954 and was a great sales success internationally building up the German photographic firm even more, turning it by far into the world benchmark within 35 mm cameras, because it was and goes on being a true masterpiece of optomechanical precision and miniaturized engineering. Lisl Steiner would intensively use this camera during early sixties in the Amazon Jungle of Mato Grosso (Brazil), photographing different native tribes and capturing images which were pioneering in its scope.
In addition, this rangefinder camera has in symbiosis with a 50 mm lens
the best viewfinder (0.91x with an effective RF base of 62.33 mm) in the whole history of photography, inclusing both the analogue and digital era, from 1953 to nowadays.
And the utterly mechanical horizontally travelling planofocal shutter sporting rubberized silk curtains (designed by Willi Stein, Dr. Ludwig Leitz and Friedrich Gath) is a real wonder of miniaturized engineering begetting a barely perceptible noise and greatly optimizing discretion during the photographic act.
All of it with a further advantage : unlike a reflex camera, there isn´t any viewfinder blackout during the photographic act, and the shutter lag (time elapsed between the instant in which the photographer presses the shutter release button of the camera and the exposure of the film) is incredibly short, only 16 ms.
On its turn, though it is a bigger and heavier camera (928 g) than the Leica M3, the Rolleiflex Automat Model 3 with Schneider Kreuznach Xenar 75 mm f/3.5 lens is also extraordinary and pretty useful for the photographic assignment developed by Lisl Steiner, since its 4 elements in 3 groups lens is superb and in synergy with the surface of the 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 format negative (four times larger than 35 mm one) generates an outstanding image quality, superior to the Leica M3, particularly when it comes to making selective reframings without any sharpness loss, something frequently done by picture editors of the illustrated magazines of the time.
Advertisement of the Rolleiflex Automat Model 3 medium format camera inside one of the pages of Popular Photography magazine from October 1953, extoling both its exceptional optomechanical virtues and its stunning sturdiness and reliability.
On the other hand, the Rolleiflex Automat Model 3 is a twin-lens reflex camera, so in addition to featuring the Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 75 mm f/3.5 objective exposing the black and white emulsion, it has a second one, the Heidoscop Anastigmat 75 mm f/2.8 showing the image through the viewfinder.
And unlike a single-lens reflex camera, the lack of a swivelling mirror provides this medium format camera with a great shooting stability, even at slow shutter speeds, with the added advantage that in the same way as happens with the Leica M3, there isn´t any darkening of the VF during the photographic act.
Besides, the Compur-Rapid leaf shutter with 1-1/500 s + B speeds inside the lens is also very dependable and amazingly silent.
But above all, as well as beating the Leica M3 in image quality, the Rolleiflex Automat Model 3 features a very important added perk : the possibility of shooting through the hooded waist level viewfinder, something that greatly enhances the photographer´s chances of going unnoticed on getting the pictures, because he/she hasn´t got to raise the camera at both eyes height.
But this image depicting Lisl Steiner during her first photographic assignment in Buenos Aires in 1955 is highly revealing and shows a budding photojournalist oozing great passion for what she does, huge gift, intuition to spare, unutterable ability of improvisation and unflinching will to fight for being always at the adequate place, at the ideal instant and as near as possible from the people she has to photograph, always with utmost unobtrusiveness and respect, virtues that she would develop to really praiseworthy heights throughout sixties, seventies and eighties and would turn her within time into one of the most important and influential photographers of all time.
Lisl Steiner on August 25, 1959, a year before she decided to fix her residence in New York.
There hasn´t been any photographer in the whole history of the medium that has photographed more world renowned celebrities in the scope of culture, politics, sports, arts and music during the second half of Twenty Century, with a rarely seen and truly commendable degree of proximity and discretion.
But the extraordinary reportage " The Children ofm the Americas ", greatly unveiled during the landmark exhibition " The Intuitive Lens of Lisl Steiner " held in Alicante, undoubtedly proves that Lisl Steiner has been one of the most important and influential female photographers ever, because of a number of reasons :
a) Her uncommon flair when it came to getting pictures from very close distances, often practically at point blank range, and vast majority of times without being detected, with great levels of discretion and capturing highly meaningful instants.
b) Her awesome knack handling two types of pretty different photogtraphic gear : 24 x 36 mm format Leica rangefinder cameras and 2 1 /4 x 2 1/4 medium format Rolleiflex cameras.
Lisl Steiner worked at great level with both kinds of cameras and formats, something only at the reach of a few great masters of photography like Werner Bischof, Alfred Eisensteadt, Gerda Taro, Robert Capa, Fred Stein, Gisele Freund, Vivian Maier, Annie Leibovitz and not many more.
d) The great humanity, people skills, unfettered courage and ability to beget wholehearted empathy with the people she photographed, allowed Lisl Steiner to make very difficult picture essays as the one of the writer Jorge Luis Borges.
e) Lisl Steiner had great energy, tremendous perseverance, fierce fighting spirit, uncommon resistance to weariness and astounding speed of movements (virtues she had inherited from her mother Katherina) in symbiosis with an amazing intuition and improvisation ability (sides in which her father Arnold also excelled), so she was able to work for many hours with identical verve until achieving her goals.
f) Once and again, Lisl was able to be at the most adequate place and moment, approaching as much as possible, unobtrusively and getting the pictures going unnoticed.
g) She had great proficiency to create images turning the everyday things into special and unfoirgettable.
h) Lisl Steiner went into a kind of hypnotic phase every time she saw something interesting and fought tooth and nail to photograph it, with emotional intensity galore in synergy with an extraordinary accuracy when shooting her cameras.
i) She was a photographer always knowing how to see the picture, thanks to her experience, sense of anticipation, intuition and nose to detect the photographically interesting vital sceneries and capture fleeting moments full of meaning and conveying messages.
In this regard, her iconic reportage " The Children of the Americas " is very far-reaching, showing Lisl Steiner as a concerned photographer highly committed to the most disadvantaged classes, specially the children, for whom Lisl felt a great devotion.
And this is something deserving accolades in a woman who during more than seventy years brushed shoulders with the most important people in the world in different cultural, musical, scientific and political scopes.
A wonderful person who was photographically and cinematographically trained in Argentina, susbsequently learning a lot of photojournalism working during seventies with her great friends Alfred Eisenstaedt and Cornell Capa, with whom she shared a lot of photographic missions.
Her life was very intense, overflowing with emotions, and her special personal circumstances made that throughout decades her extraordinary photographic production didn´t have the international recognition it was worthy and remained latent, until people like Peter Cöeln (CEO of Westlicht Photographica Auction in Vienna), Ingrid Rockefeller (Lisl´s greatest friend during more than fifty years, whom the Austrian-American photographer had always a tremendous love and affection, and whose labour has been fundamental to rescue from oblivion the World Heritage made up by Lisl Steiner´s photographs, organizing and classifying the pictures of her archive and many more things), Vivian Winther (American movie director, likewise a great friend of Lisl´s, who has taken a lot of interest on her figure and photographic production and has been twelve years shooting a documentary film about her biography), Marcelo Llobell (Interim Executive Director of the DORCAM Museum of Contemporary Art), Flor Mayoral (Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the DORCAM Museum of Contemporary Art in Doral, Miami), Alois Lammerhuber (Austrian publisher of great international prestige, who launched into market the book " The Sherezade of Photography " delving on the personality and pictures of Lisl Steiner), Clemens Knering (Austrian professional photographer and videographer who has photographed and filmed Lisl in different countries), Carsten Loene (great friend of Lisl´s, whom he always appreciated very much, feeling a great admiration for her), Jay and Rose Deutsch (directors of the Leica Gallery New York at 670 Broadway until 2015, who firstly met her in Vienna at the Freud Museum and then many times in Manhattan), Meinrad Hofer (great Austrian photographer, author of gorgeous portraits of Lisl and extraordinary images of Austrian Jews who, between 1938 and 1945 under Nazi oppression, had to leave their homeland and emigrate to the USA, and appear in his book " Witness : Realities of Forced Emigration 1938-1945 ", published by Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg), Hannah Lessing (daughter of the Magnum photographer Erich Lessing and great friend of Lisl´s ), Hans Petschar (Director of the Austrian National Library Photographic Archives), Uwe Schögl ( Expert on Photography at the Austrian National Library), Michael Haider (Director of the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York), Robert Newald ( a remarkable and highly versatile professional Austrian photographer in the scopes of portraits, architecture and publicity, as well as having made a number of excellent pictures of Lisl Steiner in Westlicht 2006, Photokina Köln 2014, during the presentation of the book " Witness. Realities of Forced Emigration 1938-1945 " in Vienna, and other venues), Alfred Weidinger (Deputy Director and Curator of the Belvedere Museum until July 2017), Aldo Sessa (acclaimed Argentinian photographer, great friend of Lisl´s since late fifties and author of some superb portraits of her) and others strived after pointing out the value of Lisl Steiner´s images, making them reach the adequate dimension and international spreading it needed and nowadays enjoys.
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It must be also highlighted the fundamental role performed by Anna Auer (photo historian and curator, former President of the European Society for the History of Photography) in the promotion of Lisl Steiner´s photographic oeuvre, since she met Lisl in New York in 1992 during her grant stay at the Getty Museum, subsequently including her work in her major exhibition " Exodus from Austria : Emigration of Austrian photographers 1920 – 1940 ", which was shown at Kunsthalle Wien, in 1998.
Lisl Steiner with a Leica M7 coupled to a scalloped Tele-Elmarit-M 90 mm f/2.8 and a Leica M5 with Summicron-M 35mm f/2 beside the lake of her home in Pound Ridge (New York). January 3, 2013. © jmse
And of course, it was also important the help provided by Sam Soshan (one of the most legendary Leica dealers in the history of Leica brand in United States along with Ken Hansen, Jim Kuehl, Stan Tamarkin, Eli Kurland, Don Chatterton, Eddie Tillis, Eric Bohmann and others), CEO of Classic Connection LLC, who was Lisl Steiner´s advisor in Leica topics for more than thirty years, often visiting her in Pound Ridge (New York).
Sam Soshan had a great and long friendship with the unforgettable Ken Hansen (a true gentleman and genius, who was able to turn into the largest Leica dealer in the United States without any website or store, only with his email, such was his tremendous knowledge), from whose teachings he gleaned a lot of experience and insightful wit, until being able to rise to the challenge and become an excellent trader to work with and one of the leading-class Leica leaders in United States regarding customer service, accurate description of products, fair prices and prompt service, something that was highly appreciated by Lisl, who had Sam Soshan in great esteem.
Lisl Steiner in November 2016 inside the Belvedere Palace in Vienna (Austria) talking to Alfred Weidinger (out of image), Deputy Director and Curator of the Belvedere Museum.
There are still a lot of photographs made by Lisl Steiner between mid fifties and early nineties to be discovered, most of which are in Argentina, Brazil and United States, because her photographic production was at the pinnacle of her career scattered in a raft of illustrated magazines, newspapers, agencies and so forth.
Lisl Steiner in Alicante (Spain) on March 2, 2022 during the dinner the day before the lecture " The Intuitive Lens of Lisl Steiner " and the iconic photographic exhibition " The Children of the Americas ", organized by Marcelo Llobell and Flor Mayoral (DORCAM Contemporary Museum of Doral, Miami) in synergy with Ingrid Rockefeller, which would be held on March 3 of that yeart and meant the golden brooch to Lisl Steiner´s career as a professional photographer. Lisl Steiner was always smiling, and with her bustling personality steadily tried to make happy the people loving her.
Lisl Steiner´s death is going to yield the birth of a new stage regarding her huge dimension both as a photographer and human being, whose most important milestone will undoubtedly be the film " LISL BABY " , devoted to Lisl Steiner´s biography and made by Vivian Winther, Ingrid Rockefeller, Marcelo Llobell and Flor Mayoral, who have worked for twelve years in it, travelling with Lisl and filming her in New York, Vienna, Buenos Aires, Bratislava, Alicante, etc.
But probably Ingrid Rockefeller´s words are the ones better defining the unique personality, very special aura and photographing style of this wonderful woman :
" ... And so my life has been full and I have no regrets. " Lisl Steiner
I have known Lisl since 1970 and have been working on a film about her life and photography with Vivian Winther for the past twelve years as well as the archive of her negatives, prints, correspondence and ephemera. Lisl´s passion for chronicling all that surrounds her has led to her work receiving attention and acclaim. She made a living photographing politicians and musicians, but her true passion was found chronicling the lives, stories and plight of real people in their very real lives.
The Children of the America´s Project began in Santiago, Chile in 1959 and has been a focus for Lisl ever since. In her pictures of children, we see children in every walk of life, from all over the world. She believed that each child deserved the chance at a beautiful life, like herself who left Austria before the nazis descended. Lisl says, " My parents and I did not run from Europe. We walked. "
In her photographs, we see her through the eyes of her subjects as they respond to the incredible presence and personality of Lisl. She never asked for permission, she trusted her gut instinct. She is magnificent, authentic and truly a work of art herself. I have always absolutely loved Lisl; she told me to stop thinking too much, to trust myself. After over fifty years of friendship, it is an honour to call her my friend, inspiration and mentor.
My wish is to share her with you ... for you to fall in love with her ... be surprised by her ... see the world through those beautiful eyes ... marvel at her courage and curiosity ... look at the photographs that will make you cry, laugh and dream. "
Ingrid Rockefeller
Lisl Steiner Intuitive Lens
