I had never heard of Herbert Tobias before today, but went to an exhibition of his photographs and was really impressed.
Tobias was a mid- to late-20th century gay German photographer who became well-known for his fashion photography in the 1950s and 60s, but who also took stunning photos of mid-century Paris and of Berlin after the war, and who in his later years devoted himself primarily to male nudes and to work for gay German magazines. Tobias also took photos for many Deutsche Grammophon album covers.
It is hard to say whether I was more taken by the photos of dashing women dressed in glamorous evening gowns for a night out on the Kurfurstendamm (Berlin’s equivalent of the Champs-Élysées); the images of children riding bikes and men selling flowers amid the ruins in the aftermath of World War II (known simply as “der Krieg” here), or the seductive shots of men in Hamburg and Berlin in the 70s.
Tobias died of AIDS in 1982. You can see some of his remarkable images here: http://www.herberttobias.com/gallery.html
