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Fred Stein gehört zu den Pionieren der Kleinbildfotografie der 1930er und 1940er Jahre. Das fotografische OEuvre des Quereinsteigers ist ein bewegendes und bewegtes Zeugnis der Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts; er schuf beeindruckende Ansichten von Städten und Menschen. Im Jahr 1909 als Sohn eines Rabbiners in Dresden geboren, war der überzeugte Sozialist nach dem Machtantritt der Nationalsozialisten 1933 gezwungen, seine Heimatstadt zu verlassen. In der Not der Flucht und Emigration offenbarte sich sein herausragendes Talent als sensibler Porträt- und Straßenfotograf. Die Liste der Porträtierten liest sich wie das »Who is Who« des 20. Jahrhunderts: Hannah Arendt, Albert Einstein, Willy Brandt, Arnold Zweig, Egon Erwin Kisch, Bertolt Brecht, Marlene Dietrich, Salvador Dalí, Martin Buber, Thomas Mann. Seine Fotografien zeichnen sich durch tiefe Menschlichkeit und einen hintergründigen Humor aus. Als humanistisch gesinnter Intellektueller bewahrte er sich immer den Blick für das Ganze - er fotografierte mehr als nur den perfekten Augenblick.
Der Katalog zeigt eine Auswahl der bedeutendsten Fotografien Fred Steins. Eine ausführliche Bildbiografie erzählt das Leben des Künstlers, und Essays namhafter Kunst- und Kulturhistoriker ordnen sein Werk in den kunsthistorischen und ideengeschichtlichen Kontext ein.

The people he photographed are famous, and famous are his portraits and cityscapes. The name of the photographer, however, is little known so far.
Fred Stein is one of the pioneers of the small-format photography of the 1930s and 1940s. The oeuvre of the man who only became a photographer by happenstance is a moving and dynamic testimony of 20th-century history. Stein created impressive pictures of cities and people. Born in Dresden in 1909as the son of a rabbi, he became a stalwart socialist and was forced to leave his home town when the National Socialists came to power. Together with his wife Lilo, he fled to Paris on the pretext of a honeymoon in 1933. An aspiring lawyer, Stein then needed to follow a new career path-for which the wedding gift of a Leica 35mm camera turned out to be the key. The hardships of flight and emigration revealed his outstanding talent as a sensitive portrait and street photographer. First in Paris and then, after 1941, in his New York exile, Fred Stein on his forays through the city became an "ethnologist of the urban space", his eye always out for special moments and the poetry of the metropolises. A silent observer, his pictures would capture typical scenes and places, as well as the special quality of life in the city. In a similar way, his portraits testify to the unobtrusive proximity in his relationship with people. The list of those portrayed reads like a Who's Who of 20th-century history: Hannah Arendt, Albert Einstein, Willy Brandt, Arnold Zweig, Egon Erwin Kisch, Bertold Brecht, Marlene Dietrich, Salvador Dalí, Martin Buber, Thomas Mann. His photographs are characterized by a profound humanity and a subtle sense of humor. As a humanist intellectual, he photographed more than just the perfect moment and never lost sight of the overall picture. In his picture stories Stein proves a masterful photographer of modernity, with a view full of empathy for his environment and his fellow human beings.
The catalog shows a high-quality selection of Fred Stein's most important photographs and at the same time provides an illustrated biography of the artist's life. It was made in close cooperation with Fred's son Peter Stein who administers his father's oeuvre.