Werner Bischof

Werner Bischof changed the course of 20th-century photojournalism with his photographs depicting the devastation of Europe and Asia in the aftermath of World War II. His photo essays and reportage earned him international acclaim, and in 1949 Bischof became the first photographer to join the founding members of the famed photo agency Magnum. Bischof studied at what was then the Zürich School of Arts and Crafts, where he developed an early interest in avant-garde photography. During the war, he was drawn to photojournalism and worked as a freelance news photographer. Reacting to the sensationalism popular among the magazine editors of his day, he instead turned to a socially conscious style that he thought had the potential to affect change. His postwar career took him around the world; in 1951, Life magazine commissioned him to document India’s catastrophic famine.