Rolf Tietgens
American, b. Germany, 1911-1984
Born 1911, Hamburg, Germany
Died 1984
In 1933 Tietgens first visited the United States, where he made a series of photographs of Native Americans, published in Germany as a book, Die Regentrommel (The Rain Drum), in 1936. As a filmmaking student in Berlin, Tietgens worked for Leni Riefenstahl as a cameraman on Olympia (1936). He then moved to New York, where he opened his own photography studio (1938). His work was featured in "Photographing New York City," an exhibition of Photo League photographers at the New School for Social Research in 1939. Despite his successful career as a photographer for numerous American magazines, Tietgens was interred as an enemy alien in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1942–43, during World War II. Naturalized in 1944, he continued to work as a commercial photographer through the fifties until 1964 when he began a second career as a painter, a pursuit that he followed until his death.
Died 1984
In 1933 Tietgens first visited the United States, where he made a series of photographs of Native Americans, published in Germany as a book, Die Regentrommel (The Rain Drum), in 1936. As a filmmaking student in Berlin, Tietgens worked for Leni Riefenstahl as a cameraman on Olympia (1936). He then moved to New York, where he opened his own photography studio (1938). His work was featured in "Photographing New York City," an exhibition of Photo League photographers at the New School for Social Research in 1939. Despite his successful career as a photographer for numerous American magazines, Tietgens was interred as an enemy alien in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1942–43, during World War II. Naturalized in 1944, he continued to work as a commercial photographer through the fifties until 1964 when he began a second career as a painter, a pursuit that he followed until his death.
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