The exhibition shows more than 350 photographs from the years 1923 to 1963, including 300 original prints. Many photos were never republished after their first appearance in newspapers and magazines and are therefore almost unknown today.
Munkácsi was born in 1896, in Kolozsvár, Hungary (now Cluj, Romania), into the large family of a master painter and decorator. In Hungary, he managed to make a living mainly with reports and photos of sporting events.
In 1928, Munkácsi moved to Berlin. The newspaper market was booming, and Berlin?s newspaper publishers maintained close contacts with Hungary. Munkácsi's photos appeared in respected fashion magazines as well as in other domestic and foreign titles. His main work was for the publisher Ullstein Verlag?s innovative Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, which had a print run of more than a million copies.
Munkácsi always combined journalistic precision with a high standard of aesthetic form and he eventually became one of the most outstanding representatives of the movement called ?Neues Sehen? (?New Vision?) and the modern movement in photography in general.
Munkácsi left Germany in 1934 and, like many prominent members of Ullstein Verlag?s staff, went into exile. In New York he accepted the USD 100,000 contract that Carmel Snow, the famous editor-in-chief of Harper?s Bazaar, had offered him a year earlier.
In the USA he achieved absolute stardom, revolutionizing fashion photography. He thought nothing, for example, of having his models walk along the beach in bathing outfits ? even in winter ? in order to set off the jaunty swing of a cape. His spectacular fashion series also contributed to the image of the modern Western woman as a successful, independent, dynamic city dweller. Munkácsi also published very successfully in Life and landed the most lucrative contract of his career with the Ladies? Home JournaL for the ?How America Lives? series. Between 1940 and 1946 he produced 65 out of a total of 78 contributions on the everyday life of Americans from all walks of life. Other highlights of his work are the unusual portraits of Hollywood stars such as Jean Harlow, Katharine Hepburn, Leslie Howard, Jane Russell, and Marlene Dietrich. He later photographed for the advertising industry and worked as a film cameraman. In 1963 Martin Munkácsi died largely forgotten and impoverished in New York. He was struck down by a heart attack while attending a football match.
He could shoot a picture in the space of a second, yet still take the time to think. ?Think while you shoot!? was his motto.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)/Martin-Gropius-Bau
