Through a Soldier’s Lens

Winner of the German Photo Book Prize 2014 in silver

The journey of his life. A photographic and historical discovery and published for the first time as a book. The photographer Bill Perlmutter, who lives in New York and is now 81 years old, was stationed in Europe as a US Army photographer from 1954. “Through a Soldier’s Lens” shows a selection of his 6?x?6 Rolleiflex images from Germany, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. In December 1954, the then 22-year-old photographer boarded the troopship to Germany to work for American army magazines. He had never left the US before and now he was looking forward to photographing Europe and visiting all the wonderful places he had read about or seen in films.

Around sixty years after they were taken, the photos show the photographer's flair for the special moment. In this way, each individual motif becomes a living mosaic piece of memory that reports very precisely about the time at that time, but also about very personal encounters. However, thanks to the photographer's intuitive ability, his images have an impact that transcends the historical moment, making his work appear extremely lively and worth seeing to this day.

Bill Perlmutter was born in New York in 1932. After studying film technology, he completed his photography studies at the Army Signal Corps School in 1954. His images have been published in numerous magazines and illustrated books and he is represented in various US museum collections. Today Bill Perlmutter lives and works in New York City.