Toni Schneiders (13th May 1920 – 4th August 2006) is one of the most significant pot war German photographers. In 1949, Lütperts founded the group Fotoform, in partnership with Peter Keetman, Siegfried Lauterwasser, Wolfang Reisewitz, Otto Steinert and Ludwig Windstosser. The group was a loosely organised collective of experimental photographers which would play a prominent role in the post war European Art photography scene.
Following the Nazi barbarity the photographers searched for new ways to aesthetically and formally express themselves.
The artistic movement of subjective photography, which was founded by the photographers of the group Fotoforum, is characterized by their member’s interest in formal abstraction and graphic structures under the emerging influence of pictorealism. From today’s perspective, subjective photography was one of the most important contributions to the medium after 1945. The photographers of subjective photography did not strive to record reality in an objective way, but rather wanted to interpret it on a personal and psychological level. The group successfully broke with the traditional movements of their time, thus creating a new dynamic in the art photography scene.
Since the beginning of the 1950’s, Schneider worked as an independent photographer who focused on the form and content of photography. With his camera he was taking pictures, from melancholically sober to poetical, of landscapes, architecture and industrial sites. Schneiders also worked for publishers and magazines such as Merian. From the end of the 1950’s Schneiders documented his endless travels to the different European countries as well as his journeys further abroad to Ethiopia, Japan and South-East Asia. His curiosity for “the things out there” is evident in his work.
In 1999 Schneiders, together with Sigfried Lauterwasser and Wolfgang Reisewitz, received the Kulturpreis der deutschen Gesellschaft für Photographie (the cultural award of the German Society for Photography). For his 85th anniversary his work was exhibited 2006 in two large museum exhibitions in the Landesmuseum Koblenz and the Städtischen Kunstmuseum Singen.
Together with the photographer’s daughter, Ulrike Schneider, the artistic work of Toni Schneider was showcased in numerous group exhibitions of Bernheimer Fine Art Photography, latest a solo exhibition in Lucerne as well in art fairs such as the Paris Photo, Frieze Masters and Masterpiece. bernheimer
All images © Toni Schneiders
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