Germany 1993, 54 min.

Directed by: Antonia Lerch

Production: Harun Farocki Filmproduktion in cooperation with ARTE and ZDF

 

Ilse Bing was born in 1899 in Frankfurt am Main. She studied mathematics, physics and art history. Her doctoral thesis was on architect Friedrich Gilly and, as a result of taking her own photos for it, decided to drop her scientific career for photography. In 1930, the magazine “Das neue Frankfurt” published her series of photographs on another architect – Mart Stam. It was with this that Bing entered the avant-garde community and met artists such as Kurt Schwitters, Jean Arp, El Lissitzky, and Hannah Höch. She also decided to go to Paris and continue working as a photographer there. Her photos were noticed by the critic Emanuel Sougez, writing a long article on Bing and calling her the Queen of the Leica. Following exhibitions in Paris and New York, she became a permanent collaborator with the newly-formed “Life” magazine. Shortly before the outbreak of war, MoMA devoted a large retrospective exhibition to her. After the outbreak of war, Ilse Bing managed to escape with her husband to the United States, where she continued to work. Now deceased, she is considered to be one of the pioneers of portrait and experimental photography.

 

 

16.05.2011, 7:00 p.m

Manggha Japanese Museum of Art and Technology, ul. M. Konopnickiej 26