Herbert List. Panoptikum

More about the book

Herbert List was captivated by the life-size wax figures displayed at the Panoptikum in Vienna's Prater. In 1944, he photographed these "artificial humans," portraying them as "corpses set in position and daubed with make-up," frozen in dramatic poses reminiscent of a Sleeping Beauty castle. He combined fairytale scenes, historical tableaux, and medical subjects with incisive text to create an illustrated book, now published for the first time in over seventy-five years, based on his original draft. An accompanying commentary contextualizes this work within his artistic career and the history of Präuscher's Panoptikum, where 19th-century popular scientific curiosity intersected with a fascination for the erotic and exotic. List (1903-1975) emigrated from Germany in 1936, influenced by surrealism and the New Objectivity. He later photographed in southern Europe and resided in Athens until the German invasion. Post-war, he shifted his focus to portraiture, reportage, and street photography, eventually working with the Magnum agency.