Olympic Album, 1936

Evidently a commemorative album, the majority of the photographs depict Leni Riefenstahl directing her masterpiece film Olympia about the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin. It was an enormous project about which noted film historian, Kevin Brownlow wrote, 'Few productions in film history have demanded so much from one person. She had some of the best cameramen in the business, but she knew the demands of filming a massive event and threw herself into every aspect. We know her now as one of the world's leading photographers, so it is no surprise to learn from cameraman Heinz von Jaworsky: "She told every cameraman what to do in precise detail, what lens to use, what filter to use, what sequence to shoot."' - Brownlow, 'Introduction' in Riefenstahl, Olympia, St. Martin's Press, 1988. Riefenstahl is portrayed in this album as heroically as the athletes in her film.