Lot 600: ERICH SALOMON (1886-1944)

ERICH SALOMON (1886-1944)
The Trial, c. 1930
gelatin silver print
credit stamp (on the verso)
5 1/8 x 7in. (13 x 17.9cm.)

Hunter-Salomon, Erich Salomon: Portrait of an Age, Collier Books, 1967, p. 91

With Photopia, Philadelphia; acquired late 1970s

Erich Salomon studied law at the University of Munich but soon abandoned his practice to pioneer in photojournalism. He specialized in photographing heads of state in unguarded moments at international conferences and social gatherings. His purpose was to show the human qualities of world leaders, who up to that time had been stereotyped in stiff formal portraits. In this image, Johann, a safecracker, stands trial in Coburg on a charge of killing three policemen. Salomon smuggled his Leica into the courtroom in order to take the shot.
He died in Auschwitz in 1944 and this print, therefore, is extremely rare; most extant material was printed later by his son Peter.