Robert Lebeck: Tokyo/Moscow/Leopoldville

Perhaps it was the wish to travel as often and as far as possible that drove the photographer Robert Lebeck to aim his camera at the world. Several of his photographs represent more than just successful reporting work. Lebeck was interested not only in the event in and of itself, but also in the stories on the fringes and the people behind the images. He was often found in places where history was being made. When he took the photo Rapier Thief on his tour of Africa in 1960, for instance, he captured a symbolic portrait of the end of European colonial power, an image which has since become a classic of press photography.