Florence henri mirror photography
- Florence henri self-portrait
- Biography.
- Florence Henri (28 June 1893 – 24 July 1982) was a surrealist artist; primarily focusing her practice on photography and painting, in addition to pianist.
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Florence Henri
In 1975 Galerie m Bochum exhibited vintage prints by Florence Henri for the first time in post-war Germany. This show gave viewers an overview of the work of one of the most important photographers of the 1920s and 30s. Her carefully orchestrated mirror compositions, photomontages and portraits represent milestones in the history of photography.
Henri, born to a French father and a German mother spent her younger days in Germany, Paris, London and Rome. In her artistic education she first concentrated on music and painting. In the Bauhaus Dessau, where she studied painting after having been at the Académie Moderne in Paris, her interest for fotography was aroused by her teacher László Moholy-Nagy. Nagy who established experimental photography at the Bauhaus, was mainly interested in the effects of light, form and composition, which becomes evident in his photographies and photogramms. The orchestration of objects, by using different kinds of illumination and the well-defined, partly constructivistic compositions in Henri's photos can surely be traced back
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The boundaries between scholarship and personal information have been over the years something I am less and less interested in maintaining. I have realized that strict boundaries between the professional and personal benefit more those whose privilege allows them to concentrate on one thing at time, or whose areas of concentration do not compete and conflict. In other words, to maintain a single and exclusive vision, it helps, first off, to be minimally involved with children, and, secondly, male or heterosexual. These aid clarity, unity and high investment in one set of signs, or values. If, however, the signs of one’s life, when assembled or made visual, are less clearly readable, are, perhaps, mutually contradictory, what forms does the image take? If the composite creature that one is leads to a hall of mirrors, of play, double-play, re-play, of positive and negative, competition between elements, of nothing one can say with absolute certainty, then how will the role of formal, impersonal scholarly discourse fullfill its intensive demands for the singular statement, the •
Florence Henri (1893 – 1982) was born in New York, although she left the USA when she was two years old following her mother’s death. She lived with relatives in Silesia (part of Germany at that time). Her childhood seemed to have been spent on the move – she attended convent school in Paris, and frequently visited family homes in England (London and the Isle of Wight). Clearly she was in a well-connected and quite wealthy family. She trained as a pianist and studied music with Ferruccio Busoni in Rome. It was there that she became acquainted with Italian Futurists.
During World War I she lived in Berlin, working briefly as a pianist for silent films. But she soon left her musical career to pursue painting. In 1924, having been denied entry into France, and declared ‘stateless’, Florence became a Swiss citizen through a marriage to a Swiss domestic servant. With that passport, she was able to go to Paris (in 1925) and began studying painting with André Lhote and Fernand Léger, adopting a cubist style.
Florence Henri. 1923. Bateaux.
In 1927,
Florence Henri (1893 – 1982) was born in New York, although she left the USA when she was two years old following her mother’s death. She lived with relatives in Silesia (part of Germany at that time). Her childhood seemed to have been spent on the move – she attended convent school in Paris, and frequently visited family homes in England (London and the Isle of Wight). Clearly she was in a well-connected and quite wealthy family. She trained as a pianist and studied music with Ferruccio Busoni in Rome. It was there that she became acquainted with Italian Futurists.
During World War I she lived in Berlin, working briefly as a pianist for silent films. But she soon left her musical career to pursue painting. In 1924, having been denied entry into France, and declared ‘stateless’, Florence became a Swiss citizen through a marriage to a Swiss domestic servant. With that passport, she was able to go to Paris (in 1925) and began studying painting with André Lhote and Fernand Léger, adopting a cubist style.
Florence Henri. 1923. Bateaux.
In 1927,
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