Born in Germany in 1964, Reiner Leist emigrated twice, from Germany to South Africa (1988-1994) and then from South Africa to the United States. His works are ongoing—often participatory—projects that examine the relationship between individual lives and societies, history, landscape and architecture. He studied Visual Arts and Photography at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich, Germany, the University of Cape Town, South Africa and the School of Visual Arts, New York. Leist approaches his subject matter through extensive long-term projects. For South Africa: Blue Portraits he interviewed and portrayed 200 participants from 1989 until 1993.
Leist began his Window project in 1995, one year after moving to New York. Since its initiation, he has photographed the view (almost) daily from his apartment in the city. American Portraits, which pairs portraits of notable individuals from the present and childhood, was begun in 1995 and published in 2001. Since 2001 Leist has worked on projects in Japan and Vietnam. Numerous exhibitions have been held of his work, including the Fotomuseum München, Stiftung Moritzburg, Halle, Meridian International Center, Washington, D.C. and Chuo Library, Musashino, Tokyo. Leist taught at the Visual Arts Program at MIT, Cambridge, Mass. from 2000 until 2003. He now teaches Visual Art at Hunter College, City University of New York with a focus on photography.
The installation Window was recently on exhibition at the Fotomuseum in Berlin in its entirety until January 2007, and Prestel has published Window Eleven Septembers, Leist's fourth monograph, in conjunction with the Berlin and New York exhibitions. Reiner Leist is represented by Julie Saul Gallery in New York City and Galerie Walter Storms, Munich, Germany.
