Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Photography Centre, Room 100, The Bern and Ronny Schwartz Gallery

Paris

Photograph
1929 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Breslauer, Marianne (photographer)
Place of origin
Paris (photographed)

Photograph


Object details

Categories
Photographs
Access_to_Images 2003
Object type
Photograph
TitleParis (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Gelatin-silver print
Photography
Brief description
Gelatin-silver print, 'Paris', 1929, Marianne Breslauer
Physical description
Photograph
Dimensions
  • Height: 17cm
  • Width: 23cm
Gallery label
  • In this image, photographed from above, Breslauer conveys the hustle and bustle of city life. Parisians cross the road, their elongated shadows cast across the street, oblivious to the cars whirling around the bend. The unusual vantage point of this image lends it a Surrealist tone, reflecting Breslauer’s association with the movement.(May 2023)
  • Gallery 100 ‘A History of Photography’, 2014-2015, label text: Marianne Breslauer (1909–2001) Paris 1929 Breslauer trained with Man Ray and, like Ilse Bing, used the Leica to take street photographs from unexpected vantage points. Shot from above, the compositions capture the hustle and bustle of a sunny Parisian street. At one stage she displayed the larger of the two photographs the other way up, creating a more Surrealist impression. The smaller print is a contact print from the negative, revealing how radically Breslauer later cropped the image. Gelatin silver prints Given by the artist, in memory of Arthur and Tamara Kauffmann Museum nos. Ph.797-1987; E.135-1998 (06 03 2014)
Credit line
Given by the artist, in memory of Arthur and Tamara Kauffmann. Copyright Estate of Marianne Breslauer
Object history
Marianne Breslauer was part of Man Ray's circle and of the cosmopolitan scene in the 1920's and early 30's. Breslauer produced memorable portraits of the famously androgynous Swiss travel writer Annemarie Schwarzenbach who experimented with drugs and died tragically young. Breslauer described Schwarzenbach as : "neither a woman, neither a man, but an angel, an archangel..." She also took street photographs utilising the new light cameras of the time - typified by the Leica, introduced in 1925 - to look at the world from unexpected vantage points.
Place depicted
Paris
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
PH.797-1987

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Record createdAugust 4, 2003
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O83133/paris-photograph-breslauer-marianne/
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