The greatest fashion photographer you’ve never heard of

[darr]

Dora Kallmus (1881–1963), better known as Madame d’Ora, was an unusual woman for her time with a spectacular career as one of the leading photographic portraitists of the early 20th century ...


https://nypost.com/2020/02/25/the-greatest-fashion-photographer-youve-never-heard-of/

https://www.neuegalerie.org/madame-dora

[Bob Salomon]

Bruno of Hollywood.

All those 40, 50, and 60s movie star glamour shots. Also N.Y. Broadway stars.

[Old_Dick]

Irving Penn.

[darr]

We know about Bruno (aka Bernard of Hollywood) and Penn; this is about an unknown female photographer you never heard of and a current exhibition of her work. She was active before, during, and after WWII and lost family to the holocaust. Definitely worth reading about IMO.

[Tin Can]

Well I have heard of most, reading WWD (https://wwd.com/) since age 16, when I read it at the Post Office I worked at.

Subscribe to W (https://www.wmagazine.com/) now

I prefer Bill Cunningham (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Cunningham_(American_photographer))

[Roger Thoms]

Darr, thanks for posting this. Very interesting to learn about a photographer that I was not familiar with. Wish I could make the exhibition.

Roger

[cowanw]

A few notes from a book of portraits that I have collected and published that are on topic (at least a bit).
Thirty-four percent of Viennese photographers were Jewish and, three quarters of the photo studios in Vienna, before 1938, were run by Jewish women. Before World War One, Vienna was like a kaleidoscope view of the sociologic and cultural ferment of the early twentieth century. Fine art photography in Vienna flourished in the interwar years, especially among women. The Graphische Lehr-und Versuchsanstalt fur Photographie und Reproduktionsverfahren in Vienna was a vocational high school for media, first founded in 1888. Women were officially admitted after 1908, although, Dora Kallmus attended as an observer in 1906.

In my book of portraits is one by Hans Drucke. He was also known as Johannes Drüecke and worked in the studios of Eugen Veit, Madame d’Oro and Edith Barakovic before moving to Madame d’Oro’s Paris studio. He returned to Vienna after 1935, and acquired Kalmuss's interests in the Vienna studio after the Anschluss. Madame D’Oro is the same Dora Kallmus who was the first woman to attend the Graphische Lehr-und Versuchsanstalt fur Photographie und Reproduktionsverfahren. That same year, 1906, she joined the Vienna Photographic Society. In 1907, she opened a studio in Vienna with Arthur Benda, whom she met as an assistant at the studio of Nicola Perscheid in Berlin. Part of the vanguard of the many female Jewish photographers of Vienna, she was so successful that she opened a branch studio in Paris in 1924. She stayed in Paris after 1927, hiding in the countryside during the Occupation of France and reopening her studio in 1946. She lived until 1963.

Trude Fleischmann was also well educated, including training at the Lehr-und Versuchsanstalt für Photographie und Reproduktionsverfahren, the same school that Dora Kallmus attended. After three years of study, Trude became an apprentice photo-finisher at Dora Kallmus’s studio, but was let go after three weeks because she was too slow and meticulous.

[darr]

Darr, thanks for posting this. Very interesting to learn about a photographer that I was not familiar with. Wish I could make the exhibition.

Roger

Your welcome Roger.
Nice to hear from you!

Kind regards,
Darr

[darr]

A few notes from a book of portraits that I have collected and published that are on topic (at least a bit).
Thirty-four percent of Viennese photographers were Jewish and, three quarters of the photo studios in Vienna, before 1938, were run by Jewish women. Before World War One, Vienna was like a kaleidoscope view of the sociologic and cultural ferment of the early twentieth century. Fine art photography in Vienna flourished in the interwar years, especially among women. The Graphische Lehr-und Versuchsanstalt fur Photographie und Reproduktionsverfahren in Vienna was a vocational high school for media, first founded in 1888. Women were officially admitted after 1908, although, Dora Kallmus attended as an observer in 1906.

In my book of portraits is one by Hans Drucke. He was also known as Johannes Drüecke and worked in the studios of Eugen Veit, Madame d’Oro and Edith Barakovic before moving to Madame d’Oro’s Paris studio. He returned to Vienna after 1935, and acquired Kalmuss's interests in the Vienna studio after the Anschluss. Madame D’Oro is the same Dora Kallmus who was the first woman to attend the Graphische Lehr-und Versuchsanstalt fur Photographie und Reproduktionsverfahren. That same year, 1906, she joined the Vienna Photographic Society. In 1907, she opened a studio in Vienna with Arthur Benda, whom she met as an assistant at the studio of Nicola Perscheid in Berlin. Part of the vanguard of the many female Jewish photographers of Vienna, she was so successful that she opened a branch studio in Paris in 1924. She stayed in Paris after 1927, hiding in the countryside during the Occupation of France and reopening her studio in 1946. She lived until 1963.

Trude Fleischmann was also well educated, including training at the Lehr-und Versuchsanstalt für Photographie und Reproduktionsverfahren, the same school that Dora Kallmus attended. After three years of study, Trude became an apprentice photo-finisher at Dora Kallmus’s studio, but was let go after three weeks because she was too slow and meticulous.

Thank you for sharing this!

Best to you,
Darr

[Ari]

Thank you for sharing this!

Best to you,
Darr

+1; thanks, Darlene and Bill.

[reddesert]

Aha! I went to the Leopold Museum in Vienna a couple summers ago and happened to see this exhibition there. It's really good. I was a little familiar with the artistic ferment of early 20th century Vienna and the famous painters of that period, but didn't know anything about Dora Kallmus, so it was a welcome surprise.

The exhibition writeup mentions her photos of the designer Emilie Flöge wearing her avant garde dresses. Flöge was a companion/friend of Gustav Klimt, and the big Klimt exhibition that was also there in 2018 showed a number of contemporary photos of Flöge and Klimt wearing such costumes, acting out skits, and the like. (To my surprise, Klimt seems to have been good company; while Egon Schiele may have lived down to the tortured-Expressionist image.)

Related to what Bill said, it was interesting to me how much of the famed Viennese avant-garde arts of the turn of the century (including the crafts and applied arts, etc) was sponsored by the patronage of the Viennese Jewish upper middle class.

[darr]

+1; thanks, Darlene and Bill.

Your welcome Ari!

[darr]

Aha! I went to the Leopold Museum in Vienna a couple summers ago and happened to see this exhibition there. It's really good. I was a little familiar with the artistic ferment of early 20th century Vienna and the famous painters of that period, but didn't know anything about Dora Kallmus, so it was a welcome surprise.

The exhibition writeup mentions her photos of the designer Emilie Flöge wearing her avant garde dresses. Flöge was a companion/friend of Gustav Klimt, and the big Klimt exhibition that was also there in 2018 showed a number of contemporary photos of Flöge and Klimt wearing such costumes, acting out skits, and the like. (To my surprise, Klimt seems to have been good company; while Egon Schiele may have lived down to the tortured-Expressionist image.)

Related to what Bill said, it was interesting to me how much of the famed Viennese avant-garde arts of the turn of the century (including the crafts and applied arts, etc) was sponsored by the patronage of the Viennese Jewish upper middle class.

Thank you for sharing this!

Kind regards,
Darr

[bob carnie]

For me two women stand above all the other - Lillian Bassman and Sara Moon- these two photographers are IMO in my all time 10 favs.