Erich Lessing

Erich Lessing
Austrian b. 1923 Born in Austria, Erich Lessing emigrated to Palestine and studied at Haifa’s Technical College, first raising fish on a kibbutz then working as a soldier and taxi driver while learning photography on his own.From 1939-45 Lessing served in the Sixth Airborne Division of the British Army as an aviator and photographer and returned to Vienna in 1947. He worked as a reporter and photographer for the Associated Press and was invited into Magnum by David Seymour, one of the founders, whom he had met in Strasbourg in 1950 while they photographed the first meeting of the Council of Europe.Lessing became a full member of Magnum in 1954 and continued to work as a photojournalist until 1970, covering political events in North Africa (e.g., De Gaulle in Algiers) and in Europe, and reporting on the onset of the Communist period in Eastern Europe for Life, Epoca, Picture Post, Paris-Match. His pictures of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution are notable as a record of a popular uprising and street fighting with tanks in this city with a by-standing population.

The prime minister obtained the withdrawl of soviet troops. Until the soviet troops reoccupied budapest on the 1st November.

Lessing, who lives in Vienna, has taught numerous workshops in Europe and has received prestigious awards such as the French Prix Nadar. He is a member of UNESCO’s International Committee of Museums.