Elfie Semotan
Elfie Semotan (born July 25, 1941 in Wels ) is an Austrian photographer .
Life
In 1960 Semotan graduated from the Hetzendorf fashion school in Vienna . Then she wanted to design bags and worked for the fashion designer Gertrud Höchsmann for a few months . Since the prospects in the fashion industry in Vienna were not very promising at the time, she moved to Paris in 1961 and initially earned her living there as a photo model.
During her time in Paris she met the photographer John Cook , and the two became a couple. Semotan learned photography from Cook, which interested her more than standing in front of the camera. Semotan also befriended Sarah Moon , who started taking photos at the same time. In 1971, Semotan and Cook returned to Vienna, where her career as a photographer began to take shape. Semotan and Cook worked on Cook's film I Can't Make It Together. Another cooperation for a film with the working title Portrait of a Model did not come about because the two separated.
In 1973 Semotan married the artist Kurt Kocherscheidt . Their sons Ivo and August were born in 1974 and 1982.
From 1976, Semotan photographed and filmed advertising campaigns. Are known u. a. her work for Palmers and Römerquelle . From 1985 she worked as a portrait photographer for international magazines such as Vogue , Elle , Esquire , Marie Claire , Harper's Bazaar , The New Yorker . She was also commissioned with travel documentaries and artist portraits.
From 1986 Semotan worked with Helmut Lang . After Kurt Kocherscheidt's death in 1992, Semotan moved to New York and has worked there as an advertising and fashion photographer ever since. Her clients include Interview , Esquire , Harper's Bazaar and iD Magazine .
In 1996 Semotan married the artist Martin Kippenberger , who died in 1997. Together with him she designed the raft of the Medusa and photographed it for his work Frieda für alle .
In 2003 Semotan received a visiting professorship at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. In this context, she went on a study trip to Libya .
Elfie Semotan now lives in New York, Vienna and Jennersdorf in southern Burgenland .
Awards
Exhibitions
- 2013: Elfie Semotan: retrospective . Kunsthalle Krems
- 2019: Elfie Semotan: Contradiction. C / O Berlin
Works (selection)
- Another kind of beauty . Recorded by Ute Woltron. Brandstätter, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-85033-926-1
Web links
- Elfie Semotan Official Homepage
- Literature by and about Elfie Semotan in the catalog of the German National Library
- The Originals | Elfie Semotan | Photographer , The New York Times, August 22, 2006
- Lisl Ponger and Elfie Semotan awarded by the State of Vienna , wien.gv.at, June 24, 2004
- Radio portrait of Elfie Semotan in the Ö1 series Chroniclers, Reporters, Enlighteners from 2003
- Sven Michaelsen: »From 19 on, stupidity breaks beauty« . Interview with Elfie Semotan in SZ-Magazin No. 8/2016
literature
- Felix Hoffmann, C / O Berlin Foundation (ed.): Elfie Semotan: Contradiction , exhibition catalog, Hatje and Cantz Verlag, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-7757-4607-6
- Michael Omasta, Olaf Möller: John Cook - Viennese by Choice, filmmaker by profession . Synema publications, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-901644-17-2
Individual evidence
- ↑ Feeling the pulse with the camera in Kunstzeitung September 2013
- ↑ Elfie Semotan. November 30, 2018, accessed July 10, 2019 .
- ↑ Interview in the FAS of March 13, 2016, p. 54
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Semotan, Elfie |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian photographer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 25, 1941 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wels (city) |