TONI SCHNEIDERS
Schienenspinne, 1950
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
Biography
Toni Schneiders (German, 1920-2006) took an apprenticeship as a photographer between 1936 and 1939 and spent time during World War II as a war reporter in Italy and France. After returning from a Russian prisoner of war camp, he again set up his own studio in Meersburg on Lake Constance in 1948. He co-founded the fotoform group the following year. In 1950 he took over direction of Werner Mannsfeld’s studio, a position that would influence his later work. In 1953 he traveled extensively—to Ethiopia, Sardinia, Crete, Yugoslavia, Scandinavia, and Japan. In the years that followed, he built a comprehensive archive of photographs that were published in numerous calendars and picture books.
