black and white photograph, portrait of a man who wears a hooded garment with buildings in the background.
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Herbert List in Greece

20th century German photographer inspired by classical antiquity

How Herbert List captured the ancient and modern in his photography of Greece

by
Adrian Murphy (opens in new window) (Europeana Foundation)

Herbert List was a German photographer who was active in the early part of the 20th century. His photographs were published in leading fashion magazines such as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.

List was born in Hamburg in 1903 into a wealthy family. He began to explore photography in the late 1920s, taking photographs during travels while working for a coffee company.

In the 1930s, he began to turn his interest into a career. In 1936, he was forced to leave Germany due to the Nazi persecution as he was gay and one of his grandparents was Jewish. He moved to Paris, where he met his lover George Hoyningen-Huene and decided to dedicate himself fully to photography.

black and white landscape photograph of a Greek village in mountains.

Between 1937 and 1939, he travelled in Greece and Italy with Hoyningen-Huene, taking the photographs seen here. His photographs of temples, sculptures, landscapes and people were published in a book Licht über Hellas ('Light over Greece'), which was not released until 1953.

These photographs are in keeping with his aesthetic. After World War II, his photography career continued until the 1960s. Throughout this time, he took black-and-white photographs during travels. He often shot male nudes taken in Italy and Greece, inspired by classical architecture.

Herbert List died in Munich in 1975 and today is remembered as a classic modernist photographer.

black and white photograph of man in silhouette walking up steps by a white house.
black and white photograph of a white-washed church in Greece.
black and white photograph of a small number of classical ruins in a wooded landscape.
black and white photograph of sun setting over the sea.
black and white photograph, portrait of a man who wears a hooded garment.
black and white photograph of a Greek landscape with mountains, houses and sea.
Boy in a hooded garment sits on a rock playing a flute.
black and white photograph of a boy playing a flute while sitting on rocks.
black and white photograph of a man who rests his hands on handle of a tool.

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