Gisèle Freund
Personal Information
Description
Born in Berlin in 1908, Gisèle Freund was one of Europe’s most prominent photographers and a pillar among French feminist intellectuals after fleeing Nazi Germany and settling in Paris in the 1930’s, where she pursued her doctoral studies at the Sorbonne. Her thesis on photography in France in the 19th century was met with scepticism, because photography was not considered a serious study then. In the course of her long career, she went on about 80 photographic assignments around the world, mainly for Time and Life. As the only female founding member of Magnum, she earned her living as a photojournalist. Today however, she is noted for being one of the greatest portrait photographers ever. “She was able, better than anyone, to reveal the essence of beings through their expressions,” said Ex-President Jacques Chirac. She captured André Malraux on a Paris rooftop, Aldous Huxley and André Gide at a congress for the defence of culture; Walter Benjamin sitting on a bench in the Bibliotheque Nationale; Vladimir Nabokov, Henri Michaux and Jean Paulhan in the editorial offices of the magazine Mesures and James Joyce playing the piano for his son. She shot the first colour portraits of Simone de Beauvoir, Paul Valéry, Colette, André Breton, Virginia Woolf, and numerous writers and artists that will remain unforgettable in our memory.
Books
Three Days with Joyce
Joyce's lauded biographer (James Joyce), Ellmann, professor at Oxford, provides a moving, informative introduction to Freund's landmark book. The photographer's text and pictures create a rare feeling of intimacy with the author of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake when he was living in Paris during the late 1930s. Joyce is seen conferring with his family's best friends, Eugene and Marta Jolas (they published sections of Finnegans Wake in their review, Transition); with Sylvia Beach and Adrienne Monnier (who published Ulysses) et al. But the most eloquent photos epitomize Joyce's "iron affection" for his wife Nora, his daughter, his son and daughter-in-law and their child. Relaxing in their company, the great author displays the Irish wit usually hidden by his shyness or insecurity. In the closeups that include a striking color shot, one sees the artist as an older man, marked by worry over reactions to his innovative novels, by heartbreak over the mental illness of his beloved young daughter Lucia, a myriad of emotions behind the familiar, peering eyes. Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Frida Kahlo
"These books provide a historical overview of the development of different types of art and artistic movements; explore the roots and influences of the genre; discuss the pioneers of the art and consider the changes the genre has undergone"--