Leaving is Entering. Photographs 1961 – 1968. Bernard Larsson

Bernard Larsson

Bernard Larsson is one of the great unknown photographers of the 1960s. He moved to Paris in 1959 to perfect his work as a fashion photographer with William Klein and Irving Penn. He soon became more interested in street life, however, and, beginning in 1961, Larsson was one of the most important photojournalists of everyday life on both sides of the Wall. His book Die ganze Stadt Berlin. Politische Fotos was published in 1964. The volume stands out among the many photo books on Berlin because Larsson, with his Swedish passport, succeeded in capturing the threatening mood in both halves of the divided city. Larsson subsequently worked as a reporter for Stern magazine; his photographs were also published in the German newspaper Die Zeit. He made documentary films for German broadcasters NDR and WDR. Larsson’s travels took him to Morocco and Spain, where he worked as a freelance reporter without editorial assignment. When the student protests unfolded in Berlin, he was one of the few reporters able to submerge himself entirely in the students’ milieu.