Clara Sipprell

Clara Estelle Sipprell (born October 31, 1885 in Tillsonburg , Ontario , † December 27, 1975 in Manchester , Vermont ) was a Canadian - American photographer.

Life and education

Clara Sipprell was born to Francis and Fanny Crabbe Sipprell in Tillsonburg, Ontario. She was the sixth child and the only daughter in the family. Her father died before she was born and her mother had to raise the children alone. Sipprell was looked after by her grandparents until she could attend school. Her second oldest brother, Henry Sipprell, moved to Buffalo , found work and brought the family to join them . Frank Sipprell, the oldest brother, found work as a photographer and opened his own photo studio in 1902.

Clara Sipprell spent a lot of time there and at the age of 17 she finished school and started working as a photographer. She first worked for her brother, during which time she learned photography with photo plates and photo paper . With the advent of artificial lighting, her brother adapted to it, but Sipprell refused. Even later she did not use artificial lighting, but only worked with natural lighting. In addition, she did not edit her photos. It was important to her that the composition of an image was perfect before it was taken and that post-processing was unnecessary.

Career

She started exhibiting her work. First in the Buffalo Camera Club. This at a time when women could not become members there. She won many awards for her work in the Camera Club. After that, they presented in New York on Teachers College of Columbia University and opened in 1915 along with Jessica Beers a photo studio in Greenwich Village . She met the Russian immigrant Irina Khrabroff, who moved into Beers and Sipprell's apartment. Beers moved out in 1923 when Khrabroff got married, but Sipprell stayed in the apartment and lived there with Khrabroff and her husband until 1933. During this time she learned a lot from other New York photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz , Edward Steichen , Arnold Genthe , Max Weber , Clarence White , Gertrude Kasebier and Alice Boughton . She became a member of the Pictorial Photographers of America , the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain and the Arts Club of Washington .

Khrabroff gave her the opportunity to photograph members of the Chekhov Art Theater in Moscow as well as Russian aristocrats. Her interest in the Balkans awoke, she traveled to Yugoslavia with the Khrabroffs in 1924 and she photographed Nina, the Khrabroff's daughter. The friendship ended in 1935.

After taking photos of Camp Hamoum , a summer camp for girls in Vermont, in 1917 , she opened a summer studio in the Connecticut River Valley in Thetford , Vermont. She had this for seventeen years. Friends organized a trip to Sweden for Clara Sipprell in 1928 and arranged the opportunity to take pictures in the royal palace. Photos of King Gustav V and other members of the royal family were taken.

Many important personalities of their time came to her studio. She photographed Albert Einstein , Robert Frost , Edwin Markham and Pearl Buck as well as many other musicians and composers. In the 1920s and 1930s, she won many prizes at national and international exhibitions for her portraits and landscapes. One of her photos New York-Old and New was one of the first photographs in the Museum of Modern Art . Further works can be found in the Amon Carter Museum and Syracuse University . Sipprell was a member of the Pen and Brush Club , an organization in New York for women artists and writers.

Sipprell relocated her summer studio to Manchester Center, Vermont in 1954. There she lived with Phyllis Fenner, whom she had met in 1937. Fenner was a librarian, author, anthologist, and storyteller. She went on many trips. On these photos were taken in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Japan, Great Britain, France and Yugoslavia.

Clara Sipprell died on December 27, 1975 in Manchester, Vermont. Her ashes were buried near a rock in Manchester. According to her wishes, a small bronze plaque was attached to the rock, on which her name is engraved together with that of Jessica Beers and Phyllis Fenner.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Clara E. Sipprell Papers An inventory of her papers at Syracuse University. In: syr.edu. library.syr.edu, accessed on August 16, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Clara Sipprell | Smithsonian American Art Museum. In: si.edu. americanart.si.edu, accessed August 27, 2017 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Sipprell, Clara - Vermont Historical Society. In: vermonthistory.org. Retrieved August 27, 2017 (English). 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Sipprell, Clara Estelle (1885-1975) ( Memento from May 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ Clara E. Sipprell. New York City, Old and New. c. 1920 | MoMA. In: moma.org. The Museum of Modern Art, accessed August 27, 2017 . 
6. ^ Pen + Brush History. In: penandbrush.org. October 23, 2005, accessed May 10, 2020 .