Rudolf Franz Lehnert


Rudolf Franz Lehnert was an Austro-Hungarian photographer, noted for producing Orientalist images.

Life

Lehnert was born in Gross Aupa, in Bohemia, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
He first travelled to Tunis in 1904, and in 1904 he again visited with his friend, and subsequent business partner, Ernst Heinrich Landrock. The pair established a photographic studio in Tunis and worked closely for more than 20 years. They later established studios in successively, Munich, Leipzig and Cairo, publishing the works as by "Lehnert & Landrock".
From the 1860s onwards photographs of people with different cultural values and sexual morality became popular for artistic and erotic reasons. According to Pascal Baetens, they border on racism and ethnocentrism.
Lehnert spent the last part of his life at Redeyef, Gafza Oasis, Tunisia, where he died.

Gallery