Landrock Ernst Lehnert Rudolf & Biography
Rudolf Lehnert was born in Bohemia in 1878. In 1903 during a walking tour through Europe, finally arriving in Palermo where he discovered the erotic and sensual charm of the East through the photographs of Wilhelm Von Gloeden. From there he went to Tunisia, where he was overwhelmed by the beauty of the country and began his career as a photographer.
After returning to Europe, he showed his photographs to Ernst Landrock in Switzerland, who immediately saw their commercial potential. Together they returned to Tunis in 1904, where they opened a photographic studio that produced a wide range of images, including romantic Saharan panoramas and erotic portraits, distributed through monographs, original prints, lithographs and postcards.
Although the photographs were signed with both their names, Lehnert was the photographer and Landrock the businessman. Landrock ran the studio in Tunis and then Cairo after World War I, organized Lehnert's desert caravans and marketed their products.
When Lehnert sold his part of the business to return to Tunis in 1930, Landrock continued the business in Cairo in close collaboration with his Swiss son-in-law Kurt Lambelet, transforming Lehnert and Landrock into a center for fine art prints. Sensing that another war was coming, Landrock sold his share of the business to his son-in-law.
