Title: Herbert List: The Monograph
Author: Max Scheler
Publisher: Monacelli Press, 2000
Text by Herbert List, Günter Metken, Ulrich Pohlmann, Bruce Weber, Edmund White, and Wilfried Wiegand; 327 pages, black and white illustrations
This striking monograph presents an extensive overview of the distinct phases that comprised the long and celebrated career of the German photographer Herbert List. Organized chronologically and thematically, List’s handsomely reproduced black and white photographs are accompanied by texts composed by distinguished scholars and artists, poetically leading the reader through each phase of his 50 year career. Beginning with the metaphysical still-life abstractions of the mid-1920s, the trajectory moves fluidly into the exquisite and famous Mediterranean landscapes and portraits of the 1930s. An ample amount of attention is paid to List’s penetrating and elegant portraits of notable literary and artistic contemporaries, including Jean Cocteau, William Somerset Maugham, and Igor Stravinsky. The book concludes with his humanitarian photographs from Mexico and the Caribbean, followed by texts written by List, himself, as well as a chronology, bibliography, and notes. This monograph is a laudable presentation of List’s lifelong dedication to photography and its capacity to function as a vehicle for beauty, art, and philosophy.
