Still Life with tulips
- Object:
Photograph
- Place of origin:
Paris, France (photographed)
- Date:
1939 (photographed)
1939-40 (Printed) - Artist/Maker:
Bing, Ilse, born 1899 - died 1998 (photographer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Gelatin-silver print on Agfa Brovira paper
- Credit Line:
Bequeathed by Ilse Bing Wolff
- Museum number:
E.3053-2004
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, level H, case X913, box H
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 before moving to Paris in 1930 to concentrate on photography.
In the early 1930s Bing had been a prolific photographer, well-known for her modernist, journalistic city scenes. This photograph was taken during a period when Bing made few photographs and felt that she had ‘said what I had to say’. It demonstrates her skill in photographing still-life, an unusual subject for her. The sharp angles, steep perspective and focus on light and shade, typical of her images of buildings, add to the beauty of this delicate image.
