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Lisl Steiner

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lisl Steiner
Steiner in 2013
Born(1927-11-19)November 19, 1927
Vienna, Austria
DiedJune 7, 2023(2023-06-07) (aged 95)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Buenos Aires
Known forPolitical and cultural portraits
StylePhotojournalism
Spouse
Meyer Monchek
(died 1992)
Websitelislsteiner.com

Lisl Steiner (November 19, 1927 – June 7, 2023) was an Austrian-born American photographer, photojournalist, and documentary filmmaker. She was known for her photographs of political and cultural figures of the 1950s and 60s, including Fidel Castro, Oscar Niemeyer, Louis Armstrong, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Richard Nixon, and Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Early life and education

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Steiner was born in a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria, in 1927. Shortly after Adolf Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, she and her family emigrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina.[1] She studied art at the University of Buenos Aires and the Fernando Fader School of Decorative Arts.[2]

Career

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In her 20s, Steiner began working in documentary film. She helped produce some 50 documentaries for the foreign ministry of Argentina.[1][2]

Steiner's photojournalism career began around age 30, when she published a photograph of Argentina's president, Pedro Eugenio Aramburu for Life magazine. She went on to work for the Brazilian magazine O Cruzeiro, undertaking photo assignments around Latin America.[1][2]

In 1960, she moved to New York and began freelancing for Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, Life, and Associated Press. That year, she photographed Fidel Castro during a famous visit to the United Nations. Her subjects from this time include artist Henri Cartier-Bresson, US president Jimmy Carter, and the state funeral of John F. Kennedy.[1][2][3][4]

In 2000, the Leica Gallery in Manhattan held a retrospective of her work.[5]

Personal life

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Steiner moved to Westchester County, New York, in the early 1970s. A longtime resident of Pound Ridge, she spent 24 years living with her husband, psychiatrist Meyer Monchek, who died in 1992.[2]

Steiner died on June 7, 2023, at age 95.[6]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Bleyer, Jennifer (August 13, 2006). "A Career Behind the Camera". The New York Times. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e "The intuitive lens of Lisl Steiner". Organization of American States. 1994.
  3. ^ Swift, Vivian. "An Improvised Life". Panache Privee.
  4. ^ Brodnick, Bonni. "Photographer Lisl Steiner: 'Don't Be Possessed by Your Possessions'". The Huffington Post. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  5. ^ Delbanco, Andrea (October 22, 2000). "Playing Around the Neighborhood". The New York Times. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  6. ^ EFE (June 8, 2023). "Lisl Steiner, the photojournalist of the figures of the second half of the 20th century, dies". San Diego Union-Tribune en Español (in Spanish). Retrieved June 8, 2023.
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