Josef Breitenbach

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Josef Breitenbach (born April 3, 1896 in Munich , Germany ; † October 7, 1984 in New York ) was an American photographer of German origin. His focus was on portrait photography, he was also a defining member of the surrealist movement.

life and work

Childhood and early years

Josef Breitenbach comes from a Jewish wine trading family from Munich. He grew up during the First World War and the difficult post-war years and completed both technical and commercial training and studied philosophy and art history at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . During this time he became politically active in a pacifist youth organization of the SPD for the first time . He took an active part in the November Revolution and then held an office in the council government for a few months .

In 1932, after his parents' trading company went bankrupt, he opened his first photo studio in Munich. His customers came mainly from the Munich artistic circles. Impressive portraits of actors and other artists from his circle of friends date from this time.

Exile in Paris

After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Breitenbach was targeted by the SA , less because of his Jewish descent than his political past. Shortly afterwards he left for Paris with other German exiles . He was accepted into the group of artists around André Breton and exhibited together with Man Ray , Jacques-André Boiffard , Brassaï , Eli Lotar and Henri Cartier-Bresson . Breitenbach photographed his fellow artists in exile, such as Helene Weigel , Bert Brecht , Max Ernst and Lyonel Feininger, and took part in the Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme in Paris in 1938 .

His German citizenship was revoked in 1938. Breitenbach lived in Paris for only six years, until the start of the Second World War in 1939. After a brief internment, he was able to flee to New York via Marseille in 1941 .

New life in American exile

Breitenbach was able to continue his photographic work seamlessly in America. In the 1950s and 1960s he reported reports, including a. for the United Nations , to Asia. His photos have been shown in a number of exhibitions, such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art . In addition, he taught a. a. at Cooper Union .

reception

Josef Breitenbach is considered one of the pioneers of the surrealist movement thanks to his expressive and often highly alienated images . Since his death, his pictures have been shown in numerous solo exhibitions in New York, Paris, Berlin, Munich and other places in Europe and America. His archive is at the University of Arizona ( Tucson ). Part of his extensive collection of photographs was sold to the Fotomuseum in the Munich City Museum as early as 1979 , where it forms an important part of the collection.

literature

  • In the eye of exile: Josef Breitenbach and Free German Culture in Paris 1933-1941 . Structure Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-351-02522-X .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Breitenbach, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American painter and photographer of German origin
DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich , Germany
DATE OF DEATH October 7, 1984
Place of death New York City , USA