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Fritz Lang´s Metropolis (1927) is a defining film of the silent era and science fiction genre. But the work of the film´s

still photographer Horst von Harbou has remained obscure. Von Harbou, brother of Thea von Harbou, Lang´s then wife

and co-screenwriter of Metropolis, photographed filmed scenes as well as off-camera action, and made an album of

thirty-five photographs which he gave to the film´s young star Brigitte Helm. The book Metropolis is a careful reconstruction

of this album, showing the photographs and some of their backsides which feature hand-written notes. Von

Harbou´s photographs not only offer a rare insight into Lang´s film, but have been crucial in reconstructing missing

scenes from it.

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Harbou, Horst von
Horst von Harbou was born in 1879 in Hutta, Posen, and died in 1953 in Potsdam-Babelsberg. Very little is known about von Harbou, except for the films on which he worked as a still photographer: these include Mensch ohne Namen (1932), Starke Herzen im Sturm (1937) and Augen der Liebe (1951).

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