| Summary: | Like few other Weimar photographers, Helmar Lerski (1871-1956) embodies the intertwined paths of photography and film in the period. In the course of his career, he moved smoothly and almost effortlessly between the two media; his work is the result of a genuine cross-fertilization between photography and film. Born Israel Schmuklerski in Strasbourg, Lerski emigrated from Switzerland, where his parents had settled in 1876, to the US at the age of 17. He became an actor performing with German theatre troupes in the Midwest, though with only moderate success. With his wife, the actor Emilie Bertha née Rossbach, he opened a photographic studio in Milwaukee in 1910. His dramatically lit role portraits, most of them featuring his former actor colleagues, quickly attracted attention and were featured in photography magazines and national exhibitions, such as the Conventions of the National Photographers’ Association of America. In 1914, the University of Texas at Austin offered to create a chair in Photography for Lerski which he did not take up. Instead, the Lerskis returned to Europe in 1915 and settled in Berlin.
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