Studio self-portrait
Photograph
1945 (photographed), 1945 (printed)
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 |
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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 |
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Style | |
Marks and inscriptions |
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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 created | January 10, 2006 |
Record URL |
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