13 Facts About Helmut Gernsheim

Helmut Erich Robert Kuno Gernsheim was a historian of photography, a collector and a photographer.

Helmut Gernsheim studied art history at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Helmut Gernsheim took up photography in 1934 at the urging of his brother, de:Walter Gernsheim, who thought it a more practical profession for someone from a partially Jewish background who intended to leave Nazi Germany.

Helmut Gernsheim graduated from the State School of Photography, Munich, after two years' study.

Helmut Gernsheim earned his release from internment by volunteering to work for the National Buildings Record, returning to London in 1942 to photograph important monuments with a view to revealing their artistic merits.

Helmut Gernsheim joined The Royal Photographic Society in 1940 became a Fellow in 1942.

Helmut Gernsheim met his future wife, Alison, in 1938 and, after she and her first husband, Blen Williams, divorced, they set up home together in 1942 and married at the end of the war.

Helmut Gernsheim was granted British citizenship in 1946 and continued to live in London for most of his life.

Along the way, in 1952 Helmut Gernsheim rediscovered the long-lost world's first surviving permanent photograph from nature, created by Joseph Nicephore Niepce in 1827.

Alison Gernsheim died on 27 March 1969 and Helmut Gernsheim remarried in 1971 to Irene Guenin.

Helmut Gernsheim continued a positive interest in photography, vigorously supporting the establishment of photographic galleries and museums in the USA and Britain, including The Photographers' Gallery under Sue Davies in 1971 and the National Museum of Photography Film and Television under Colin Ford in 1983.

Ultimately, Helmut Gernsheim needed to find a home for his vast collection of over 33,000 photographs, 4,000 books, research notes, his own correspondence, and collected correspondence including letters by Daguerre and Fox Talbot.

Helmut Gernsheim sought unsuccessfully to found a national museum of photography in the UK.