Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archive is an extensive image library featuring over 40.000 high-resolution images from over 500 museums and many other collections. Founded and mostly photographed by Erich Lessing, the collection covers a wide range of subjects: fine art, religion, history, music, archaeology, mythology, architecture, landscapes, historical portraits and reportage.

After WWII, Lessing worked as a photographer for the Associated Press and, in 1951, joined Magnum Photos. For clients like LIFE, Paris Match, Picture Post, EPOCA and Quick Magazine, he documented political events in post-war Europe, particularly in the former Communist countries. He covered the Hungarian Revolution, several summit meetings and president Charles de Gaulle´s visit to Algeria.

His CV is adorned with a remarkable amount of awards and honours, among which are the American Art Editors’ Award for his work during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, the Austrian Karl Renner prize for outstanding cultural achievements, the Imre Nagy-medal for his work during the Hungarian revolution in 1956 and, in 1997, the Grosser Österreichischer Staatspreis.

The reportage section of the websites contains over 4.000 images by various authors.