Portraits Of An Age

Portraits Of An Age by Moortgat, Elisabeth. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9783775715645.

The process of creating a portrait involves much more than the dialogue between the photographer and his model. The visual experience shared by portrait subjects, authors and viewers casts self-presentation and photographic interpretation into pre-existing molds. Yet individuality and spontaneity gained significant ground in the years following the turn of the century, when efforts to escape from dictorial rule in the late 1930s led to even greater concern with individuality. The resulting portraits document the changing image of middle-class society in Germany and Austria, while demonstrating the rise of photography as an independent force. Gradually, the refined salon portraits of such artists as Nikola Perscheid and the Atelier dOra gave way to the crystalline elegance of heads and faces by Trude Fleischmann, Lotte Jacobi and Hugo Erfurth. Umbos extreme close-ups, Helmar Lerskis light-modeling and Laszlo Moholy-Nagys experiments radically altered the human image in entirely unexpected ways. Containing some 150 portraits by more than 35 photographers, this book offers a splendid survey of portrait photography in Germany and Austria from 1900 to 1938.