lesged Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 I started using Leicas in Copenhagen in 1955. The last ones I owned were a mixture of Leica CL and Minolta CLE bodies and lenses. I'm ashamed to say I don't have any Leica equipment at the moment, but feel this forum can help me find some information about the late, great, Leica photographer, Werner Bischofshofen. I couldn't find any information about him using Google's search engine. My questions are: Was he German, Austrian or Swiss? When and where did he die? The last spread of his photos I can think of were taken in and around a Buddhist monastary in Asia and published in LIFE. His name doesn't come up as a staff photographers for Life or Magnum. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerry cabluck Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 Try black star, sygma, paris match Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
josef_geisler Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 Hi His name is Werner Bischof. He is born in 1916 in the Swiss region. Just search the internet. Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_doyle Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 Here you <a href="http://www.icp.org/chim/bio/bischofw.html">go...</a> It's not much, but the name's right as per Frank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerry_freeman1 Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 Google says it was Werner Bischof...jf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nowhereman Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 Werner Bischof was Swiss. There is a very good bock of his photographs, but I don't have the title handy. You should be able to find it with a Google search. He died in Peru when his car fell off a precipice on a mountain road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lee_shively Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 Give this site a look: http://www.magnumphotos.com/c/htm/TreePf_MAG.aspx?E=29YL53IQYHK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt_m__toronto_ Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 <a href=http://www.wernerbischof.com/>hiswebsite</a> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lesged Posted November 3, 2003 Author Share Posted November 3, 2003 Thank you all! I mixed up Werner's correct last name with an Austrian friend who had the longer version. So glad Werner Bischof hasn't been forgotten. I enjoyed his work so much. BTW, my first Leica was a Leica IIf red-dial with a Leitz factory refurbished f2 50mm Sunmmitar. The flesh tones of that lens were lovely. Most of photos on my website www.lesgediman.com were taken with that body and lens in the late 1950s. Nowadays, my eyesight wouldn't allow me to use the rangefinder of the screw mounted bodies-- except the IIIG, if that was still screw mounted. In 1955, when you bought a new Leica, you got the Leica magazine for life. Oh those were the days..... Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feli Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 http://www.magnumphotos.com/c/htm/TreePf_MAG.aspx?E=29YL53IQYHK Werner Bischof Swiss, 1916 - 1954 Werner Bischof studied photography with Hans Finsler in his native Zürich at the School for Arts and Crafts (1932 -1936), then opened a photography and advertising studio which he ran until his military service in 1939. As of 1942, he was a freelancer for Du magazine, and got international recognition after publication of his 1945 reportage on war's devastation. In the following years Bischof travelled in Italy and Greece for the Schweizer Spende. In 1948 he photographed the winter Olympics in St. Moritz for Life magazine. After trips to Eastern Europe, Finland, Sweden and Denmark, he received a contract from Picture Post and the Observer and was the first new photographer to join the original Magnum founders in 1949. Disliking the "superficiality and sensationalism" of the magazine business he devoted much of his working life to looking for order and tranquility in traditional culture, something which didn't endear him to picture editors looking for hot topical material. Nonetheless, he found himself sent to report on famine in India by Life (1951). Later on he worked in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Indochina, and the pictures from these reportages were used in major picture magazines throughout the world. In 1954 he traveled to Mexico and Panama for Life, and then his search for authenticity took him to a remote part of Peru to make a film. Unfortunately, his jeep accidentally went over a cliff in the Andes on May 16th, 1954, and he died only nine days before Magnum founder Robert Capa perished in Indochina. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael_bender Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 <a href=http://www.magnumphotos.com/c/htm/TreePf_MAG.aspx?E=29YL53IQYHK> <b>His page at www.magnumphotos.com</b></a> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spearhead Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 <a href="http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=193922142">This is an excellent book</a> of his work. Music and Portraits Blog: Life in Portugal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derek_stanton2 Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 I hate that site (Magnum). As if i needed to feel MORE inadequate.... I've sorta known about Bischof for a while, but revisiting his pictures now, for some reason, makes an altogether different impression. Wow. Alright, yet more books i 'need' to find/buy. Thanks, ever so much, fellas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew_lee2 Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 Yes, but I've <i>always</i> wondered, what's up with <a href="http://www.magnumphotos.com/c/htm/CDocZ_MAG.aspx?o=&DT=ALB&E=2TYRYDZXFDVI&Pass=&Total=32&Pic=5&SubE=2S5RYDWILERK" >this</a> photo? Straight-up out of The Exorcist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim_clifford Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 There is an exhibition of his work now at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. http://www.artsmia.org/exhibitions/details.cfm?EV_ID=1124 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan_simon Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 Hi, Bischof was one of the greats who found their way infront of this image I caught at an ASMP meeting during the '50s. Al<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james_elwing Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 see Leica Fotografie no5/1954 'Master of the Leica Werner Bischof' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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