Erich Salomon, Vintage Work is the first major gallery presentation of work by this under recognized photojournalist in a number of years. This work looks surprisingly contemporary in its intimacy and immediacy. Salomons approach to photography is indeed the first “candid camera”.

Salomon was born in Germany in 1886 and became a pioneer of photojournalism, one of the first photographers who worked with the small format 35-mm camera, with which he could capture indoor scenes with available light. Salomon offered the first glimpse of so-called “smoke-filled rooms”, unobtrusively capturing political gatherings of international leaders in the period leading up to World War II. For instance, Mussolini and his cronies seem merely to be businessmen enjoying pipes, newspapers and gossip at their respective mens clubs, rather than determining the fate of Europe.

When Hitler came to power, Salomon fled to the Netherlands, working there and in England where he published “Celebrated Contemporaries in Unguarded Moments” in 1931. Later, he was betrayed to the Nazis and died in Auschwitz in July 1944.

There is a prestigious “Dr. Erich Salomon Prize”, a “lifetime achievement” award for photojournalists, given by the German Society of Photography (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Fotografie). He is best remembered in Portrait of an Age published in 1967.