Minya Diez-Dührkoop

Minya Diez-Dührkoop (self-portrait, 1908)

Minya Diéz-Dührkoop (born Julie Wilhelmine Dührkoop ; born June 21, 1873 in Hamburg ; † November 17, 1929 there ) was a German photographer .

Life

Julie Wilhelmine Dührkoop was born as the second daughter of the renowned German portrait photographer Rudolf Dührkoop . Neither through her mother Maria Louise Caroline Dührkoop born. Matzen is known something about her sister Hanna Maria Theresia, who is one year older than her. Her father quit his job with the railroad in the 1870s and joined the amateur photographer community during a short commercial career . As an autodidact , he founded his first studio for portrait photography in 1883 and quickly became known in Germany.

In 1887, at the age of fourteen, Minya began working as an assistant in his studio . Her career was closely linked to that of her father, as his numerous relationships and memberships in art circles and associations also shaped her social environment. In the studio community with her father, she was trained to be a self-employed worker. Over the years, Atelier Dührkoop has devoted itself to various photographic subjects : architecture, parades and festivals; but oil paintings were photographed. In particular, however, portraits of Hamburg celebrities and established citizens secured their income.

In 1894, Minya Dührkoop married the Málaga- born photographer Luis Diéz Vazquez . Nothing is known about professional collaboration between the couple. When the marriage ended in divorce in 1901, Minya Diéz kept the married name.

When Rudolf Dührkoop opened two branches in Berlin in 1900, Minya Dührkoop's role no longer corresponded to that of an assistant. She ran the Hamburg studio independently and, according to the entry in the commercial register of September 2, 1906, became a partner in her father's studio. In autumn 1901 Minya and Rudolf Dührkoop started their first trip to England . Trips to America followed in 1904/1905 . On the one hand, the trips were dedicated to visits to exhibitions and own exhibitions; on the other hand, they served to maintain contact with other professional and amateur photographers. The Dührkoops gradually became known internationally. After her father's death in 1918, Minya Diez-Dührkoop continued to run the Hamburg studio. With her death on November 17, 1929, the professional occupation of the Dührkoop family with photography ended.

Minya Diez-Dührkoop, portrayed by her father Rudolf Dührkoop in 1910

Artistic network: traveling and joining clubs

At a time when photography was becoming an outstanding mass medium thanks to technical progress and the amateurs in art photography gained more and more influence, only a few professional photographers were publicly present. Minya and Rudolf Dührkoop were able to assert themselves through the high artistic quality of their photographic work. In addition, the continuous maintenance and expansion of her artistic network was of crucial importance for her success.

Minya Diéz-Dührkoop, who herself collected contemporary art - she owned, for example, a painting by the painter Alma del Banco -, moved among Hamburg artists' circles and in whose studio in Jungfernstieg 34 numerous writers and artists frequented, became a passive member of the expressionist artist community in 1910 " Bridge ". She maintained contact with writers like Richard Dehmel and his wife Ida and visual artists like Max Pechstein , Franz Radziwill and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff . Encounters overseas also shaped her work. A high point in Minya Diéz-Dührkoop's artistic and social life was the trip to America in 1911, which took place at the invitation of the Photographers Association of America . Father and daughter Dührkoop were asked to give some readings and practical demonstrations of their work in Saint Paul, Minnesota , which proves that their portraits also received high international recognition. In America, the two made the acquaintance of famous photographers such as Gertrude Käsebier ; George Eastman had Diéz-Dührkoop portray himself. A professional exchange also took place in America with the Swiss photographer Helmar Lerski . Apart from the artistic network they established during this time, the conference of the Photographers Association of America itself was not a great success for father and daughter, because their photographs were late due to customs controls. Minya and Rudolf Dührkoop's international fame grew continuously through various trips. The two also traveled to England in 1901 and 1908 to meet famous photographers such as Emil Otto Hoppé and Alvin Langdon Coburn . At that time they were the only professional photographers from Germany to be accepted into the elite circle of the Brotherhood of the [Linked Ring] , otherwise only amateurs who had the higher artistic prestige at the time were admitted.

Since 1919 Minya Diéz-Dührkoop was one of the first members of the Society of German Lichbildner (GDL) . The GDL, which is now called the German Photographic Academy , was founded in 1919 by the portrait photographer Kurt Schallenberg (1883–1954) with the aim of "refining the professional work of the photographer" and at that time was an association of leading German professional photographers. During the 1920s, the GDL developed into an institution that sought to preserve the classic values ​​of aesthetic photography. The appointment of the members took place after a quality check by means of a vote by the association members. Minya Diéz-Dührkoop, who was accepted at the time the association was founded, set the standards for the level of performance of the subsequent accessions alongside Hugo Erfurth and Franz Grainer . The specialist organ of the Society of German Photographers was the magazine Das Atelier des Photographen .

In 1920 Minya Diéz-Dührkoop became a member of the Hamburg Art Association , which had been founded by Rosa Schapire and Wilhelm Niemeyer . Diéz-Dührkoop took several portraits of Niemeyer's painter friend Franz Radziwill and his wife Inge Johanna in 1922. A number of postcards by Radziwill to Diéz-Dührkoop in watercolors, which appeared in the art trade, testify that there was a lively artistic exchange here too.

From 1927 Minya Diéz-Dührkoop was advisor for photography in the Association of Hamburg Artists and Friends of Art , also created by Rosa Schapire (with Ida Dehmel) , a forerunner of GEDOK .

Minya Diéz-Dührkoop: Image of an Intimacy , 1900/1910

The painter and sculptor Elena Luksch-Makowsky in front of her painting Adolescentia

Minya Diéz-Dührkoop: Gertrud Falke, 1908

Artistic creation

Theoretical background: Pictorialist photography

In 1898 the German photographer world first became aware of Minya Diéz-Dührkoop, albeit not as a photographer but as a model, because her father presented portraits of his daughter at the 27th annual exhibition of the German Photographers Association . Contrary to the classic portrait style, he photographed her in everyday poses because he believed he could work out the personality through unconstrained naturalness. Inspired by the painterly tendencies of art photography, Rudolf Dührkoop wanted, like various other photographers of the time, to free portrait photography from the compulsive framework of the studio . According to the Alfred Lichtwarks and Ernst Juhls programs , which were not only concrete for the artistic principles of the Dührkoops, but also groundbreaking for the entire international development, the conventional studio props, for example, should be dispensed with and natural, diffuse light achieved in the portrait. Too strong contrasts were softened by soft-working printing processes in order to give photography an artistic status by means of painterly means. This was the declared aim of pictorialism (or pictorialist photography), which prevailed between 1890 and 1910/1915. In the beginning, amateurs in particular implemented the concepts described, some professional photographers eventually took them over under increasing economic pressure and relied on an artistic ennoblement of their work. This was also the goal of Minya Dührkoop. Her photographic program consisted to a large extent of the pictorialist objectives of working artistically instead of commercially and to capture characteristic and essential elements with the camera instead of staged poses.

How the Dührkoops work

At Dührkoop, a 13 × 18 cm portrait cost around 50 ℳ , while cheap portraits cost 10 ℳ. For this money, the discerning customer received a meeting in one of the Dührkoops recording rooms, which were set up differently. There were ladies' and gentlemen's rooms, the homely interior of which was supposed to enable the "home photos" propagated by art photographers.

In order to gain prestige as a portrait photographer, however, photographic-technical skills were particularly crucial. During the recording session, the Dührkoops worked with white and black canvases and mirrors in order to avoid excessive play of light and shadow and to bring calm to the portrait. Ideally, retouching should be avoided. However, if it was necessary to correct over- or under-exposure or rough surface damage to the plate, the technical processing of the photographic negative became an important part of the artistic work. Development tanks with various solutions were used, as these enabled a subsequent, precise control of the gradual development of the tone value . At Dührkoops, the result was largely fixed as a rubber dichromate or pigment print and given to the customer in a framed form. With specially elaborated enlargements, they served the desire of the upper middle class for exclusivity.

Although the Dührkoops used very traditional methods for customer requests, they experimented with new work techniques outside of business practices. Minya Diéz-Dührkoop and her father made progress particularly in the field of early color photography . He had long been involved with color photographic methods such as the autochrome process and oil and bromine oil printing . Finally, Jos-Pe Farbenphoto GmbH contacted them to familiarize them with the novel process they had developed. Her studio became a hub for the new technology when, in 1924, Otto Mente , the chairman of the German Photographic Society, described the advantages of the Jos-Pe process in the Berlin daily press and Minya Diéz-Dührkoop illustrated these designs with her successful color photographs. It can be assumed that she worked for this with the “Uka” (universal camera), which was specially manufactured as a so-called beam splitter camera by Jos-Pe Farbenphoto GmbH for this process.

Portrait photography in the studio

Minya Diéz-Dührkoop followed the principles of pictorial portrait photography in a characteristic way. While her father was particularly proficient in classical composition, she had the talent to capture intimate moments without the medium of the camera dominating. This includes, for example, the Art Nouveau- oriented double portrait image of an intimacy .

Diéz-Dührkoop's intention was always to depict the essence “instead of pose and retouch”. Little by little, father and daughter became the leading point of contact for first-class portraits in Germany. Important politicians, aristocrats and intellectuals can be found in Dührkoop's directory of portraits of important people from all areas . Minya Diéz-Dührkoop dedicated herself in particular to artistic women photography.

Various mezzotint engravings based on photographs of nature were printed in the illustrated book Schöne Frauen (approx. 1920) by Emil Otto Hoppé and Minya Diéz-Dührkoop with a text by Franz Blei .

Minya Diéz-Dührkoop: Lavinia Schulz as Tanzbertchen

Dance studies with Lavinia Schulz and Walter Holdt

In addition to the more or less befitting portraits of women, dance studies by Minya Diéz-Dührkoop have been handed down. 28 original prints, which have been preserved in the Hamburg Museum of Art and Crafts , show the Hamburg dancers Lavinia Schulz (1896–1924) and Walter Holdt (1899–1924) in self-made expressionist costumes. The dance poses were recorded in Atelier Dührkoop in variants from the front and from behind, with different backgrounds and different costumes. When it comes to the color of the prints, it is noticeable that they are not pure black and white , but rather sepia brown tones . Some of the gelatin silver prints are mounted on beige or brown cardboard.

The domain of contemporary dance must have inspired Minya Diéz-Dührkoop photographically and was a particular concern of her, because there are other images in The Art of Dance of Our Time (1928).

Publications

• Rudolf Dührkoop: Dührkoop portraits. Directory of portraits of important people from all areas by Rudolf and Minya Dührkoop . Without a place, without a year.
• Rudolf Dührkoop: Workshop for the artistic camera portrait. Owner Rudolf Dührkoop and Ms. Minya Diéz-Dührkoop , Hamburg 1911.
• Beautiful women. 36 mezzotintos based on natural photographs by EO Hoppé and M. Diéz-Dührkoop , (text by Franz Blei) F. Bruckmann, Munich around 1920.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Although she herself gave her name correctly according to the Spanish spelling, it was usually simplified to Minya Diez-Dührkoop in German and English-language publications .
2. ↑ Odette M. Appel-Heyne: Rudolf Dührkoop. ... , p. 9.
3. ↑ Odette M. Appel-Heyne: Rudolf Dührkoop ... , p. 21 ff.
4. ^ Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez: The female photographers in Hamburg in the twenties , p. 291.
5. ↑ Odette M. Appel-Heyne: Rudolf Dührkoop ... , p. 98.
6. ↑ Odette M. Appel-Heyne: Rudolf Dührkoop ... , p. 67.
7. ↑ Odette M. Appel-Heyne: Rudolf Dührkoop ... , p. 65 ff. And p. 84 ff.
8. ^ Franz Günter Zehnder (Ed.): Schafgans. 150 years of photography , p. 35.
9. ↑ Rudolf Herz; Brigitte Bruns: Hof-Atelier Elvira 1887–1928 ... , p. 136.
10. ^ Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez: The female photographers in Hamburg in the twenties , p. 292.
11. ↑ Odette M. Appel-Heyne: Rudolf Dührkoop ... , p. 71.
12. ^ Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez: The female photographers in Hamburg in the twenties , p. 291 f.
13. ^ Gerhard Wietek: Franz Radziwill ... , p. 194.
14. ↑ Odette M. Appel-Heyne: Rudolf Dührkoop ... , p. 101.
15. ↑ Odette M. Appel-Heyne: Rudolf Dührkoop ... , p. 101 ff.
16. ↑ Odette M. Appel-Heyne: Rudolf Dührkoop ... , p. 67.
17. ↑ Odette M. Appel-Heyne: Rudolf Dührkoop ... , pp. 65, 84f and 102.
18. ↑ Odette M. Appel-Heyne: Rudolf Dührkoop… ,, p. 47 and 85f.
19. ^ Fritz Kempe: Before the Camera ... , p. 89.
20. ^ ^{A b} Society of German Photographers . In: Harald Olbrich (Ed.): Lexicon of Art. 2nd edition, EA Seemann, Leipzig 2004, Volume 2 (Cin - Gree), p. 720.
21. ^ Gerhard Wietek: Franz Radziwill ... , pp. 28, 30f and 194, illustrations pp. 22-27.
22. ↑ Odette M. Appel-Heyne: Rudolf Dührkoop ... , p. 23, Figure 12.
23. ↑ Odette M. Appel-Heyne: Rudolf Dührkoop ... , p. 32.
24. ↑ Rudolf Herz; Brigitte Bruns: Hof-Atelier Elvira 1887–1928. ... , pp. 136 and 148.
25. ^ Rudolf Dührkoop: Workshop for the artistic camera portrait , p. 24.
26. ↑ Rudolf Herz; Brigitte Bruns: Hof-Atelier Elvira 1887–1928 ... , p. 148.
27. ↑ Odette M. Appel-Heyne: Rudolf Dührkoop ... , p. 44.
28. ↑ Odette M. Appel-Heyne: Rudolf Dührkoop ... , p. 45.
29. ^ Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez: The female photographers in Hamburg in the twenties , p. 291.
30. ^ Franz Günter Zehnder (Ed.): Schafgans. 150 years of photography , p. 78.
31. ^ Fritz Kempe: Before the Camera ... , p. 109.
32. ^ Rudolf Dührkoop: Workshop for the artistic camera portrait . P. 24.
33. ^ Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez: The female photographers in Hamburg in the twenties , p. 292.
34. ↑ Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez: dance photographs of Minya Diez-Dührkoop . P. 57 and 60.

literature

• Herrmann Aubel, Marianne Aubel: The Artistic Dance of Our Time , Königstein im Taunus 2002.
• Odette M. Appel-Heyne: Rudolf Dührkoop. Commercial Pictorialist , Bachelor Thesis in Art History, Boston University 1972; MA Art, University of New Mexico, 1981.
• Athina Chadzis: The mask dancers Lavinia Schulz and Walter Holdt . In: "Yearbook of the Museum for Art and Industry Hamburg", vol. 13. Museum for Art and Industry, Hamburg 1996, pp. 97–114.
• Fritz Kempe: In front of the camera. On the history of photography in Hamburg , Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1976, pp. 86–111.
• Claudia Gabriele Philipp [= Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez]: Photographer. Profession and calling . In: Frauen Kunst Wissenschaft, magazine for gender research and visual culture , No. 14, 1992, pp. 28–35.
• Claudia Gabriele Philipp [= Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez]: The history of photography in the Museum of Art and Industry Hamburg . In: Photographic Perspectives from the Twenties, Volume 4. Hamburg 1994, pp. 15–29.
• Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez: Dance photographs by Minya Diez-Dührkoop . In: Unleashed. Expressionism in Hamburg around 1920. Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg 2006, pp. 56–63.
• Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez: The photographers in Hamburg in the twenties. In: Heaven on time. The culture of the 1920s in Hamburg. Wachholtz, Neumünster 2010, pp. 291–296.
• Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez; Klaas Dierks: Diez-Dührkoop, Minya : In: Hamburgische Biografie, Personenlexikon, Vol. 6, Göttingen 2012, pp. 73–75.
• Rudolf Herz, Brigitte Bruns: Hof-Atelier Elvira 1887–1928. Aesthetes, emanciers, aristocrats. Exhibition of the Fotomuseum in the Münchner Stadtmuseum December 13, 1985 - March 2, 1986 , Fotomuseum, Munich 1985, pp. 136 ff. And 148 ff.
• Gerhard Wietek : Franz Radziwill - Wilhelm Niemeyer. Documents of a friendship. Isensee, Oldenburg 1990, pp. 28 ff. And 194.
• Franz Günter Zehnder (Ed.): Sheep goose. 150 years of photography , Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn / Wienand Verlag, Cologne 2004.
• Two people and a portrait of the painter Julie de Boor . In: »German Camera Almanac. A yearbook for the photography of our time «19 (1928), p. 61 and p. 201.
• Ladies profile and study . In: »Deutscher Camera-Almanach. A yearbook for the photography of our time «16 (1925), pp. 135-137.

Web links

Commons : Minya Diez-Dührkoop  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Minya Diez-Dührkoop in the catalog of the German National Library