c. Erich Hartmann/Magnum

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER

ERICH HARTMANN

1922-1999

Erich Hartmann, the wonderful man whose photograph of John Franklin Bardin adorns this website, passed away in 1999.

His friend, Burt Glinn, wrote of him, "He was the first to bring the techniques of photojournalism to corporate photography. By his example he opened an entire new field for photographers who up until then had worked mainly for magazines. He said, "I want to photograph objects in ways they have never seen before." His work ranged from his fascination with science and industry to the deep humanity of his coverage of the arts and his pictures of the Nazi death camps fifty years after the Holocaust. He has had one-man shows in New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Tokyo, and many major German cities. At the time of his death he had completed work on a book about Italy.

The following is from the Afterword of Erich Hartmann's 1995 book, "In the Camps" (W.W. Norton & Company):

"If I have learned any lesson from having been in the remains of the camps, it is that thinking or living for oneself alone has become an unaffordable luxury. Except perhaps in dreams, life no longer takes place on a solitary plane. It is now irrevocably complex, and we, whoever we are, have become intertwined one with the other, whether we like it or not. Acting on that belief may be a more effective tribute to the memory of the dead than mourning alone or vowing that it shall not happen again. And it may also be the most promising way of doing away with the concentration camps. I am not an optimist, but I believe that if we decide that we must link our lives inextricably - that "me" and "them" must be replaced by "us" - we may manage to make a life in which gas chambers will not be used again anywhere and a future in which children, including my granddaughters, will not know what they are."

The John Franklin Bardin Web Page recommends that you visit "More About Erich Hartmann".

Mr. Hartmann's photograph of John Franklin Bardin was originally taken for the back cover of "The Burning Glass" (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1950). Mr. Hartmann graciously gave his permission for the use of it on this website, but he requested to be contacted if any other party should want to reproduce or use this photograph in any other manner. Please email Frank Bardin at fbardin@johnfranklinbardin.com for a referral to the copyright owners if you should want to utilize this photograph.