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Introduction

 

Henry Ries was born in Berlin-Charlottenburg in 1917 as the son of a middle-class Jewish family. In 1938 he fled to the United States of America. In 1943 he became an American citizen and immediately volunteered to join the army. He was stationed in India with an aerial reconnaissance unit.

 

In August 1945 he returned to Berlin as a soldier and resigned from army service a few months later in order to work for the OMGUS Observer as a photojournalist. In 1947 he took a job with the The New York Times and reported on their behalf from throughout Europe. Ries returned to the USA in 1951, working at first for the New York Times Studios and then turning to commercial photography. In 1955 he opened his own studio for commercial photography and graphic art in Manhattan, which he ran successfully for forty years.

 

Early on he developed his photo technique called “Helioptix”, for which he received many awards. Prompted by trips to Berlin in the seventies and eighties, he raised the question of the historical responsibility of the Germans in National Socialism. He explored this topic intensively in his book projects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Childhood and Youth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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First Photographs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Escape

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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USA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Army

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Return to the USA