Otto Steinert

Otto Steinert - Early love of photography; medical studies and joining the NSDAP

Otto Steinert was born in Saarbrücken on 12th July 1915. The son of a salesman, he was already interested in photography as a child and his first surviving pictures date back to 1929, when little Otto was just 14 years old. Steinert paid particular attention to the technical aspects of photography: he intensively studied how a camera worked and eventually constructed his own model. Despite his personal preference for photography, Steinert initially began studying medicine in Munich, which took him to Marburg in 1935 and then to Rostock a year later. While still a student, Steinert became a member of the NSDAP in 1936. During the Second World War, he served as a staff doctor and was involved in pharmacological research projects; after the war, he was exonerated by the British military government and could have continued his medical career but because important documents were delayed in the turmoil of the post-war period, Otto Steinert once again turned to photography.

Teacher and pioneer of avant-garde photography

Otto Steinert worked for a time in a photo and cinema shop, where he was able to create his first photograms and photomontages in the laboratory. He obtained permission to set up a workshop for art photography and renounced medicine altogether in favour of a career as an art photographer. As part of these endeavours, he came into contact with the director of what is now the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar and was appointed by him as a teacher for the newly founded photography class. In 1949, Steinert founded the avant-garde working group fotoform with like-minded artists such as Wolfgang Reisewitz and Toni Schneiders, who were later joined by Heinz Hajek-Halke, Siegfried Lautwasser and Christer Strömholm. In 1952, he was promoted to director of his school. Steinert devoted himself intensively to photomontage, showing a certain affinity with the work of Edmund Kesting and an enthusiasm for experimental portrait photography.

Meticulous worker, influential teacher and celebrated artist

Otto Steinert organised several exhibitions under the heading of subjective photography, the most famous exhibit of which to this day is the picture Ein-Fuß-Gänger from 1950. Characteristic of these works is the meticulous coordination of white, black and grey, for which the artist often worked on for several hours. In 1959, Steinert moved to the Folkwangschule in Essen, where he remained until his death, influencing generations of important photographers such as Kilian Breier, Arno Jansen, Guido Mangold, Dirk Reinartz and Ute Eskildsen. Otto Steinert received prizes and honours for his art, including the Cultural Prize of the German Photographic Society in 1962 and the David Octavius Medal of the Society of Photographers in 1965. Steiner chose to call himself a ‘Lichtbildner’ (light sculptor, ie. photographer) – his whole life, he did not consider himself an artist.

Otto Steinert died in Essen on 3rd March 1978.