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Female Photographers' Self-Portraits in Berlin 1929-1933

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Female Photographers' Self-Portraits in Berlin 1929-1933 SELF-EXPRESSION AND PROFESSION: FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS’ SELF-PORTRAITS IN BERLIN 1929-1933 By Sophie Rycroft A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham as part of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Philosophy in History of Art. Department of History of Art School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham September 2013 Student ID Number: 0944443 History of Art MPhil (B) Word Count: 19,998 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis is the first in-depth study of female photographers’ images of themselves, with their cameras, working in Weimar Berlin. A focus on three self-portraits by women at the heart of the so-called ‘New Photography’, will allow insight into the importance of the self- portrait genre for female photographers, who sought to establish themselves in this rapidly developing field. The photographers Lotte Jacobi (1896-1990), Eva Besnyö (1910-2003) and Marianne Breslauer (1909-2001) have diverse photographic oeuvres yet each produced an occupational self-portrait whilst in Berlin between 1929 and 1933. It is argued in this thesis that Jacobi, Besnyö and Breslauer asserted their professionalism in these foci self-portraits, which was particularly important due to the restrictions that still existed regarding working women. A professional image was even more significant due to the illustrated press associating photography with leisure when the camera was in the hand of a woman. It is also argued in this thesis that whilst photography still maintained an association with perceived reality for many in Weimar Germany, the self-portraits in this study do not present an objective and realistic representation of the photographer, but rather a complex construction of identity that is performed rather than revealed. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have many people to thank for their help and assistant during my research for this thesis. Firstly, I would like to thank Bernadette van Woerkom (curator of photography at the Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam) for meeting with me in Amsterdam to discuss the exhibition of Breslauer photographs whilst I was in the early stages of my research. My thanks also go to Hripsimé Visser and Justa van den Bulk (photography curators at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam) for answering my enquiries and sending me images from their extensive photography collection. I have many thanks for those who helped me gather material whilst in Berlin. Tanja Keppler (photography curator at the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin) allowed me to view Jacobi’s self- portrait in their collection as well as detailed curatorial files, which granted me access to vital information and primary material. Further primary material was gathered from the Lippeheide Costume Library and the National Art Library in Berlin, whose staff were particularly helpful. I would also like to thank Adelheid Rasche (art and fashion historian) and Elisabeth Moortgat (art historian) for their correspondence, advice and guidance. My thanks also go to Martin Gasser at the Fotostiftung Schweiz (Winterthur, Zurich), which holds the Breslauer Estate, for his helpful correspondence and encouragement. Staff at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) have also been particularly helpful for showing me original photographs in their collection by Marianne Breslauer and Ilse Bing as well as the art files for key photographers. I would like to thank Konrad Schäfer and Chris O’Neil for aiding the accuracy of my German translations. I am particularly grateful to the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for providing the funding for my MPhil and therefore making this research possible. I am also very thankful for the University of Birmingham in recognising the importance of my research and awarding me an AHRC scholarship. I am thankful to the College of Arts and Law Postgraduate Research Support Fund for funding my research trip to Berlin. Finally, I owe my greatest thanks to Dr Camilla Smith, who has continuously stimulated my research ideas and whose knowledge, feedback and support has been essential to this thesis. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………….1 CHAPTER ONE THE OCCUPATIONAL SELF-PORTRAIT………………………………….……………………..13 CHAPTER TWO HIGH ART AND MASS CULTURE……………………………………………………………...…43 CHAPTER THREE THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES: SUBJECTIVITY AND REALITY…..….……………..72 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………..95 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….....99 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS………………………………………………………………………………………………..….112 ILLUSTRATIONS………………………………………………………………………………………………………….......119 APPENDICES……………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………..198 INTRODUCTION The camera, a tool of self-investigation and professional realisation, appears frequently in the photographic self-portraits of female photographers working in Germany during the Weimar Republic (1919-1933). Scholars in recent years have identified that the self- portrait was popular for female photographers across Europe,1 but there has been no study of the frequent inclusion of the camera and its significance. This thesis will therefore discuss the importance of female photographers’ self-portraits, and what they can reveal about female professionals in Weimar Germany, through examining three photographers: Lotte Jacobi (1896-1990), 2 Eva Besnyö (1910-2003) 3 and Marianne Breslauer (1909-2001). Each photographer posed before the mirror, camera in hand, to take a self-portrait (figs 1-3). It is these self-portraits that form the corpus of work upon which this thesis focuses. Jacobi, Besnyö and Breslauer repeatedly engaged in self- representation (figs 4-8), but this thesis focuses specifically on self-portraits that were taken in Berlin during the later Weimar years (1929-1933). By doing so, this thesis will examine the specific social context that encouraged female photographers to produce self-portraits. Although there is no evidence to suggest that these foci photographers knew of each other, or their photographic practice, their self-portraits compositionally 1 Tirza Latimer, ‘Women and photography’, Oxford Art Online, 2006, www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T2022250, accessed February 2012; Herbert Molderings and Barbara Mülhens-Molderings, ‘Mirrors, Masks and Spaces: Self-portraits by Women Photographers in the Twenties and Thirties’ in Gladys Fabre, La Dona, Metamorfosi de la Modernitat, exhibition catalogue, held at Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, 2004, published in Barcelona, 2004, 320-325. 2 Full name: Johanna Alexandra ‘Lotte’ Jacobi. Although Lotte Jacobi was born a decade earlier than Besnyö and Breslauer all three photographers completed their training and began their photographic careers in the late twenties and early thirties. 3 Eva Besnyö’s name is sometimes spelt Eva Besnyő, but this thesis will use the more common spelling of Besnyö. 1 contain the same key elements: the camera, the use of the mirror and the photographers’ body. The self-portraits were all taken at pivotal moments in the photographers’ careers and therefore convey professionalism through including high-end equipment. However, each self-representation also points towards the complexities of self-portrait photography and the construction of (female) identity. These three images have been chosen because they not only demonstrate similar approaches to the self-portrait, but they also reveal tensions in relation to the position female photographers occupied at this time. Jacobi inherited a family photography business and the use of a large plate-backed camera in her self-portrait signals traditionalism (fig.1). Despite this tradition, Jacobi engaged with the latest photographic developments by publishing in newly established women’s magazines and taking commercial portraits of celebrities. Besnyö, of Hungarian birth, moved to Berlin to establish herself as a photographer with no history of photography in her family. Her 1931 self-portrait notably marks the start of her career (fig.2). Whilst also publishing images in the illustrated press, Besnyö had a keen interest in the so-called ‘New Photography’ of the late twenties and early thirties, typified in her self-portrait through the unusual angle from which the photograph is taken. Breslauer’s self-portrait (fig.3) on the one hand points towards photographic professionalism through the inclusion of her high-end single-lens reflex (SLR) camera, tripod and cord release, but on the other, her pose identifies with magazine culture and fashion plates. Breslauer’s semi-exposure of her body creates an unusual combination of professionalism and eroticism. The three self-portraits raise important research questions in relation to the 2 historical context in which Jacobi, Besnyö and Breslauer were operating. What do these self-portraits tell us about female professional photographers in Weimar Berlin and how they negotiated their positions in the public realm? In what ways
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