Possessing strong organizational skills, Erfurth curated a major photography exhibition in Dresden as early as 1904, and he later operated an art gallery in his studio, presenting prints and drawings by the most talented younger German artists. Erfurth also published art criticism, writing for example about the Scottish photographer David Octavius Hill (1802–1870), whom Erfurth admired for suppressing unnecessary detail in his portraits.In 1919, he co-founded the exhibiting group Gesellschaft Deutscher Lichtbildner, which included leading German art photographers. He played an important role in this group, chairing the jury from 1924–1948. Later years In 1934, Erfurth moved from Dresden to Cologne, establishing a studio there. Though many of his friends and portrait subjects left Germany after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, Erfurth stayed. His studio and his photo archives were largely destroyed by bombing in 1943. His portraits survived, having been deposited in a safe. After the war, in 1946, he moved to Lake Constance in Gaienhofen, where he continued to work. A year later, he was given a large retrospective in nearby Switzerland. He died in Gaienhofen the following year at the age of 73. Impact The city of Leverkusen and the local company Agfa, which is known mainly for the production of photographic films, sponsored an international prize for photography which bears his name. Gallery See also Pictorialism Portrait photography References Further reading External links Hugo Erfurth in the Deutsche Fotothek catalogue Hugo Erfurth at the Museum of Modern Art Hugo Erfurth at the Metropolitan Museum of Art 1874 births 1948 deaths 20th-century German photographers Photographers from Saxony-Anhalt People from Halle (Saale) People from the Province of Saxony Portrait photographers