André Steiner

photographer

b. 9 December 1901, Miháld, Austria-Hungary^[1] d. 29 September 1978, Paris, France^[1] active 1933–1978

André Steiner (1901–1978) was a French photographer of Hungarian origin. Born into a Jewish family in Miháld, he fled to Vienna at age 17 following the proclamation of the Republic of Hungary. In Vienna, he studied electrical engineering and became an assistant to photography historian Josef Maria Eder, who provided him with one of his first Leica cameras. Steiner moved to Paris in 1928, where he adopted French names and became a prominent figure in the modernist photographic scene. His work was characterized by a technical rigor derived from his engineering background, focusing on 'New Vision' aesthetics, including studies of cast shadows, anamorphoses, and distortions. He is particularly noted for his expressive nude studies (often in collaboration with his wife Lily) and his sports photography, where he captured the human body in motion. During World War II, he served in the French Air Army and joined the Resistance. Post-war, while continuing industrial and medical imaging work, he published several significant collections of his photographic art.^[1,2,3]

• nude studies
• sports photography
• New Vision
• modernist photography
• shadows