New books explore involuntary photography pioneers August Kotzsch and Fred Stein

Two new publications examine the work of photographers August Kotzsch and Fred Stein, who turned to the medium after their original life plans were disrupted. Kotzsch, a 19th-century German farmer, began documenting rural life near Dresden after crop failures forced him to seek alternative income. Stein, a Jewish lawyer who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s, captured street scenes in Paris and New York after being barred from practicing law. The books highlight how external circumstances shaped their distinctive photographic visions.