Andreas Feininger (1906-1999) achieved great acclaim for technical and aesthetic photographic contributions through his prolific documentation of New York City during the 1940s-50s and formal explorations of organic structures, including shells, leaves, and feathers.

The son of famed artist and Bauhaus instructor Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956), Andreas completed his apprenticeship at the Bauhaus in 1925 and studied at the Architectural College in Weimar and later in Zerbst, where he earned his degree in 1929. His interest in photography developed while studying architecture and was encouraged by his father's colleagues at the Bauhaus, leading him to build his first darkroom in 1927. Feininger's early experiments met with quick recognition, and he was invited to participate in the seminal Film und Photo exhibition in Stuttgart (1929). While he worked briefly at architectural firms in Hamburg, Paris, and Stockholm, by 1936, Feininger devoted himself entirely to photography. The outbreak of World War II forced Feininger, an American citizen, to immigrate to the United States in 1939. In New York City, he found work as a photojournalist, and LIFE Magazine hired him as a full-time employee in 1943. He went on to publish nearly 400 photo essays before leaving the magazine in 1962. While his magazine work often focused on urban and industrial settings, Feininger's personal work often reflected his interest in the design and construction of natural objects. This body of work, which he expanded upon throughout his career, was the subject of his first major solo exhibition, Anatomy of Nature, at the Museum of Natural History, NY and Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (1957). To achieve the monumental perspective found in his images of natural structures and city scenes, Feininger designed and built four telephoto lenses and three magnifying cameras.

Feininger was also the author of more than 30 photography books, publishing his first, Menschen vor der Kamera, in Stockholm in 1934 and his last, Nature in Miniature, in 1989. The recipient of numerous awards, he earned the American Society of Magazine Photographers' prestigious Robert Merritt award (1966) and Award for Life's Work (1986), and the International Center of Photography awarded Feininger the Infinity Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.

Feininger's work continues to captivate audiences, and recent solo exhibitions include the Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen, Germany (2015); Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA (2012); and International Culture Centre, Krakow, Poland (2010).

His work can be found in numerous museum collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg; Museum of Modern Art, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Art Institute of Chicago; and Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.