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Studio self-portrait

Photograph
1945 (photographed), 1945 (printed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Ilse Bing (1899-1998) was one of several leading women photographers in the inter-war period. Born into a Jewish family in Frankfurt, she initially pursued an academic career before moving to Paris in 1930 to concentrate on photography. In Paris, she carried out commissions for magazines and took portraits, as well as concentrating on her own work, modernist views of the city. She emigrated to New York in 1941 and remained there after the war. Bing remarked on a stylistic change that had occured since the 1930s, attributing it to the war and her sense of isolation that developed in the States where she was an anonymous émigré. She felt that she was ‘in a vacuum…looking out from the world as if from a space capsule’. This photograph shows Bing's concentration and perhaps reveals a sense of isolation and sadness at current events, and her situation.


Object details

Category
Object type
Titles
  • Studio self-portrait (generic title)
  • Autoportrait au déclencheur (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Gelatin-silver print
Brief description
Photograph by Ilse Bing, 'Self-portrait' [three-quarter version with shutter release], gelatin-silver print, 1945
Physical description
Black and white self-portrait of Ilse Bing in white blouse, holding shutter release.
Dimensions
  • Image height: 34cm
  • Image width: 26cm
  • Sheet width: 40.6cm
  • Sheet height: 50.8cm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
  • '[952-413-E15]' (Ilse Bing Wolff Estate's archival reference for the work assigned prior to acquisition by the V&A. Written on reverse of mount in pencil, bottom centre.)
  • 'ILSE BING/1945' (Written on reverse of mount by artist, in pencil)
  • 'ILSE BING/1945' (Written on top right of image in black ink.)
Gallery label
Ilse Bing (1889–1998) Autoportrait au Déclencheur (‘Self-portrait with shutter release’) 1945 Here, neither the sitter nor the camera meet the viewer’s gaze. In fact, the only part of the camera visible is the cable release that Bing holds in her hand to trigger the exposure. A German Jew, Bing spent the 1930s as a photographer in Paris. In 1941 she escaped the Nazi occupation and settled in New York, where she made this picture. Gelatin silver print Bequeathed by Ilse Bing Wolff Museum no. E.3047-2004(23/7/2016-5/3/2017)
Credit line
Bequeathed by Ilse Bing Wolff
Production
vintage print
Subject depicted
Place depicted
Summary
Ilse Bing (1899-1998) was one of several leading women photographers in the inter-war period. Born into a Jewish family in Frankfurt, she initially pursued an academic career before moving to Paris in 1930 to concentrate on photography. In Paris, she carried out commissions for magazines and took portraits, as well as concentrating on her own work, modernist views of the city. She emigrated to New York in 1941 and remained there after the war. Bing remarked on a stylistic change that had occured since the 1930s, attributing it to the war and her sense of isolation that developed in the States where she was an anonymous émigré. She felt that she was ‘in a vacuum…looking out from the world as if from a space capsule’. This photograph shows Bing's concentration and perhaps reveals a sense of isolation and sadness at current events, and her situation.
Bibliographic reference
Reynauld, Francoise. Ilse Bing: Paris 1931-1952 Paris: Musée Carnavalet, 1987
Collection
Accession number
E.3047-2004

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Record createdJanuary 10, 2006
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