Boy with Eremurus. Hammamet, Tunisia, 1935 Paper size:16 x 12 in (40 x 30 cm)

Boy with Eremurus. Hammamet, Tunisia, 1935 Paper size:16 x 12 in (40 x 30 cm)Born in 1903 into a prosperous mercantile family in Hamburg, Germany, Herbert Lists work combined a love of photography with a fascination for surrealism and classicism. He began an apprenticeship at a Heidelberg coffee dealer in 1921 while studying literature and art history at Heidelberg University. While traveling for the coffee business between 192428, the young List began to take photographs, almost without any pretensions to art. List developed

as we leaf through the book

his images of the town are intertwined with excerpts and facsimiles from a 1919 archaeological discovery also called ‘the Book of Veles’ — a cryptic collection of 40 wooden boards discovered in Russia by an army officer

he became the first contract photographer for The Observer

who had a total of 101 Life covers to his name — more than any other photographer

in particular those of the unborn and young children

What began as a class project evolved into a deeply empathetic portrait of community domestic life

producing reportage all over the world

which came to be known as Give Us the Ballot — an excerpt of which reads: “Give us the ballot and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights…Give us the ballot and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an anti-lynching law…Give us the ballot and we will fill our legislative halls with men of good will

and Levon Helm

The scene feels apocalyptic

Elliott Erwitt has spent a lifetime documenting the United States and his work now stands as a testament to what it means to be American

and beautifully captures the energy and pleasure of his light-footed subjects as they demonstrate their dance moves