Kloster, Reichenau im Bodensee
- Object:
Photograph
- Place of origin:
Germany (made)
- Date:
1929 (made)
1991 (printed) - Artist/Maker:
Bing, Ilse, born 1899 - died 1998 (photographer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Gelatin-silver print
- Credit Line:
Bequeathed by Ilse Bing Wolff
- Museum number:
E.3034-2004
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, level H, case X, shelf 913, box C
Ilse Bing (1899–1998) was one of several leading women photographers in the inter-war period. Born into a Jewish family in Frankfurt, she initially pursued an academic career. She taught herself photography to illustrate her own writing on the German Neo-classical architect Friedrich Gilly. In 1929 she bought herself a Leica camera and turned her attention to the new architecture being built around her home town of Frankfurt. The Dutch Modernist architect Mart Stam commissioned her to record several of his ambitious and radical building projects. Dizzy angles, flat plains and strong shadows were all part of a contemporary language of art and design pioneered by both the ‘New Photography’ and the new architecture. In 1930 Bing moved to Paris to concentrate on photography.
