Fritta Brod by Hess sisters

**Nini & Carry Hess ::** German actress Fritta Brod (1896-1988) in the play ‘The Chalk Circle’ by Klabund (pseudonym of Alfred Henschke), Staatstheater, 1930. (Photo by Nini & Carry Hess) | src Getty Images

**Nini & Carry Hess ::** Fritta Brod, Schauspielerin, role-picture with a hat, 1919. Published by: ‘Die Dame’ 21/1919. | src Getty Images

Irene Castle Corticelli Fashions

Irene Castle Corticelli Fashions

When Irene Castle formalized her relationship with Corticelli Silk Mills in 1917, she was at the height of her fame: she had recently filmed the serial Patria (1917) and celebrated the success of The Whirl of Life (1915); her co-authored best selling book, Modern Dancing (1914); and the Broadway hit Watch Your Step (1914). Irene was an arbiter of fashion, outfitted almost exclusively by Lady Duff Gordon and was voted the first “Best Dressed Woman in America.”

As early as 1914, silk companies like Mallison and Corticelli began using film actresses to promote their products; however, Castle was the first film star to create a line of clothing. The line launched in tandem with the serial, Patria, and Satin Patria was the fabric promoted in the early dress designs. Initially Lady Duff Gordon was the ghost designer, but as the fashion line developed Irene took over the creative side and Corticelli advertisements emphasized her role as designer. In reality, Irene remembered in her memoirs, “I had an endorsement contract with the Corticelli Silk Company which required very little of me. I helped them design the clothes.” In the later advertisements, Corticelli claimed that the dresses were duplicates from Irene’s wardrobe. “The same delightful effect of quality which distinguishes the wraps and frocks of ‘America’s Best Dressed Woman’ is found in every ‘Irene Castle Exclusive Model,’ read a 1923 advertisement. Fall/Winter 1927 was the last season of Irene Castle Corticelli Fashions and the Corticelli Silk Mill would close soon after the start of the Great Depression. [quoted from Cornell University Library]

**Ira Lawrence Hill ::** Irene Castle. Corticelli Fashion photos, 1910s | src Cornell University Library

Irene Castle with headband

Ira L. Hill :: Irene Castle (Irene Foote) wearing a headband, 1910s | src Cornell University — **Ira L. Hill ::** Irene Castle (Irene Foote) wearing a headband, 1910s | src Cornell University

Irene Castle in a rhinestone-encrusted headdress known as the Castle Band / Cornell Library

Headdress worn by Irene Castle. Silver lame with malleable wire and rhinestones, ca. 1917. | src Cornell Library

Das Modell von Kremer, 1919

Heinrich Krenes :: Das Modell. Die Muskete, 16. Oktober 1919 | src ÖNB — **Heinrich Krenes ::** Das Modell. Die Muskete, 16. Oktober 1919 | src ÖNB

Jeune italienne par Cuville

Fernand Cuville :: Jeune italienne, Vicence , Italie, 06-1918. Autochrome. | src Collection Albert Kahn — **Fernand Cuville ::** Jeune italienne, Vicence , Italie, 06-1918. Autochrome. (Detail of image on bottom) | src Collection Albert Kahn

Fernand Cuville :: Jeune femme, Vérone, Italie, 05-1918. Autochrome. Archives de la Planète | src Collection Albert Kahn — **Fernand Cuville ::** Jeune femme, Vérone, Italie, 05-1918. Autochrome. Archives de la Planète | src Collection Albert Kahn

Porträt von Dora Kallmus

**Madame d’Ora** (Dora Philippine Kallmus) :: Ohne Titel, 1916. Vintage Gelatinesilberabzug. Im Negativ signiert und datiert. | src Lempertz

Verwandlungen durch Licht

Helmar Lerski :: Verwandlungen durch Licht # 604, 1935-1936. Nachlass Helmar Lerski; Museum Folkwang, Essen & Albertina Museum

Helmar Lerski :: Untitled # 592, from Metamorphosis Through Light, Tel Aviv, 1936. | src Christie’s

Helmar Lerski (1871–1956) :: Metamorphosis Through Light (572), Tel Aviv, 1936. | src Christie’s

Helmar Lerski :: “Aus dem Werk” (“From the Factory”), from the “Verwandlungen des Lichts” (“Transformations of Light”) series, No. 540, 1936. Nachlass Helmar Lerski; Museum Folkwang, Essen

Helmar Lerski :: Verwandlungen durch Licht # 537, 1935-1936. Nachlass Helmar Lerski; Museum Folkwang, Essen & Albertina Museum

Helmar Lerski :: Verwandlungen durch Licht # 536, 1935-1936. Nachlass Helmar Lerski; Museum Folkwang, Essen & Albertina Museum

Helmar Lerski :: Verwandlungen durch Licht # 885, 1935-1936. Nachlass Helmar Lerski; Museum Folkwang, Essen & Albertina Museum

Faces. The power of the human visage (2021)

Starting from Helmar Lerski’s outstanding photo series Metamorphosis through Light (1935/36), the exhibition Faces presents portraits from the period of the Weimar Republic.

The 1920s and ’30s saw photographers radically renew the conventional understanding of the classic portrait: their aim was no longer to represent an individual’s personality; instead, they conceived of the face as material to be staged according to their own ideas. In this, the photographed face became a locus for dealing with avant-garde aesthetic ideas as well as interwar-period social developments. And it was thus that modernist experiments, the relationship between individual and general type, feminist roll-playing, and political ideologies collided in—and thereby expanded—the general understanding of portrait photography.

Faces. Die Macht des Gesichts (2021)

Die Ausstellung Faces in der ALBERTINA präsentiert Porträts der deutschen Zwischenkriegszeit. Ausgangspunkt dafür ist Helmar Lerskis herausragende Fotoserie Verwandlungen durch Licht (1935/36).

In den 1920er- und 30er-Jahren erneuern Fotografinnen und Fotografen das Verständnis des klassischen Porträts radikal: Ihre Aufnahmen dienen nicht mehr der Darstellung der Persönlichkeit eines Menschen, sondern fassen das Gesicht als nach ihren Vorstellungen inszenierbares Material auf.

Über das fotografierte Gesicht werden sowohl ästhetische Überlegungen der Avantgarde als auch gesellschaftliche Entwicklungen der Zwischenkriegszeit dargestellt. Experimente mit neuer Formensprache, das Verhältnis zwischen Individuum und Typ, feministische Rollenspiele und politische Ideologien treffen aufeinander und erweitern damit das Verständnis der Porträtfotografie.

Quelle : Albertina Museum