Lore Krüger. Ein Koffer voller Bilder

Viac o knihe

Magdeburg, London, Mallorca, Barcelona, Paris, Marseille, Trinidad, New York, Wisconsin, Berlin: these were stops along the route of an eventful escape—a moving, existential mid-twentieth century odyssey. German-Jewish photographer Lore Krüger experienced and survived emigration, resistance, persecution, imprisonment, internment camp, and exile after the rise of the National Socialists and during the Second World War. And she had her camera with her the entire time. This enabled her to create unique historic documents spanning a range of photographic genres from private photography to commissioned photography, social documentary, and experimental abstract photography. Her impressive oeuvre not only offers deep insights into the lives of European intellectuals in exile, but also affords a rare personal view of the political events of her time—beyond the familiar journalistic photos and the propaganda of the warring parties. The discovery of Lore Krüger’s photographic estate was a stroke of fortune that opens up new and direct access to the events of contemporary history. Lore Krüger’s photographs are strongly influenced by the “New Seeing,” a movement that emerged within the Bauhaus context, but also by other artistic movements such as Cubism, Dadaism, and Surrealism. She was among the Paris artists who sought to expand the visual language of photography from a purely reproductive to a productive medium. In Paris, Lore Krüger studied with the great photographer and Bauhaus graduate Florence Henri, and it was there that she acquired her photographic skills and developed her free, experimental approach to the medium. She conducted darkroom experiments with the techniques of montage, the photogram, and multiple exposure. She soon moved away from the pure, aesthetic studio photography of her teacher and turned her attention toward real life on the street. This led to her series “Gitans” on the pilgrimage site Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer and to sociological reportage photography on provincial life, workers, and the bourgeoisie in France.--Gallery website.