ERGY LANDAU 1896-1967 - Lot 25

ERGY LANDAU 1896-1967 Little girl tying her shoes, 1936. Photograph. Silver print ca. 1980, edition stamped and titled and dated in pencil on the back. Image: 20 x 16 cm; sheet: 22.3 x 18.5 cm A woman photographer and Hungarian-Jewish immigrant in Paris in the 1920s: a situation that probably didn't predestine Ergy Landau for a dazzling posterity. History has clearly not belied destiny. The photographic landscape of the time was dominated by men, and the Hungarian artistic diaspora was no exception. László Moholy-Nagy, André Kertész, Robert Capa and Brassaï all have their place in the history of photography, while the names of Nora Dumas, Ylla, Alexandra Kinga Fekete, Suzanna Nagy and Krisztina Sardi, like that of Ergy Landau, remain largely absent. His advertising photos and views of Paris were a real success, especially his carefully lit, plastic female nudes, which regularly appeared in magazines such as Arts et Métiers Graphiques. A specialist in photographs and portraits of children - although she declined the Daily Miror's offer to photograph 365 facial expressions in a little girl - she illustrated several books on the subject.