SALOMON, ERICH

born April 28, 1886, Berlin died July 7, 1944, Auschwitz, Pol. German photographer, one of the founders of photojournalism, best known for his candid photographs of statesmen and celebrities. His early interests were divided between carpentry and zoology. Later, he took a doctorate in law from the University of Munich but practiced only briefly. His career as a free-lance photographer began in 1928, when he bought one of the first miniature cameras equipped with a high-speed lens that enabled him to photograph in dim light. He concealed this camera in an attach case and secretly made photographs of a sensational murder trial. These sold so well that he became a professional photojournalist. He began to specialize in photographing the international conferences and social gatherings of heads of state. His purpose was to show the human qualities of world leaders who up to that time had been stereotyped in deadening formal portraits. Working inconspicuously, he took special delight in catching their unguarded moments of fatigue, delight, or disgust. He had such an uncanny ability to get around restrictions that Aristide Briand, a frequent premier of France, called him the king of indiscretion. His presence at state functions eventually became customary, however, and Briand later stated that nobody would believe a meeting was important unless Salomon photographed it. Salomon visited England in 1929 and the United States in 1930, photographing prominent persons of both countries. In 1931 he published Berhmte Zeitgenossen in unbewachten Augenblicken (Celebrated Contemporaries in Unguarded Moments), a collection of his photographs of over 170 celebrities. During World War II Salomon went into hiding in The Netherlands but was finally betrayed by a Dutch Nazi. In May 1944 he was sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.