Cecil Beaton self-portraits

Cecil Beaton (1904-1980) self-portrait in All the Vogue, Cambridge Footlights, 1925 | src Cecil Beaton Studio Archive at Sotheby’s

Cecil Beaton self-portrait, Cambridge Footlights, 1925 | src Cecil Beaton Studio Archive at Sotheby’s via anOther magazine

Nude by Jan de Meyere

**Jan de Meyere ~** [Kneeling] Nude, 1930s (signed 1930). Antique photogravure | src artelisted

Elsa Krüger by Dührkoop · 1922

**Rudolf Dührkoop ~** Elsa Krüger, 1922 | src Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

**Rudolf Dührkoop ~** Elsa Krüger, 1922 | src Deutsches Tanzarchiv

Terpsichore by Max Thorek

**Max Thorek** (1880 – 1960) ~ Terpsichore. Photograms of the Year 1920s | src flickr

Terpsichore, by Dr. Max Thorek (Chicago). Photograms of the Year 1920s

Nude with fan by A.F. Kales

Born in the Arizona territory, Arthur Kales received a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1903. While living in the Bay Area, he became interested in the burgeoning Pictorialist movement in photography that flourished there, and his images met with immediate success. Kales moved to Los Angeles to work in advertising but returned to San Francisco in 1917. In the following year, he nevertheless joined the Camera Pictorialists of Los Angeles. For fourteen years beginning in 1922, Kales wrote about Pictorialist photography in western America for the journal Photograms of the Year. [quoted from Getty museum]

**Arthur F. Kales** (1881 – 1936) ~ Poster [female nude with big fan]. From Photograms of the Year, mid 1930s | src flickr

Blumenvasen um 1920

Anonym ~ o.T. (Blumenvase), 1920er Jahre | src Der Blumenstrauß: Die Vergängliche Pracht ~ Beck & Eggeling

Anonym ~ o.T. (Blumenvase) (Dahlien), 1920er Jahre | src A bouquet of flowers: Transient beauty ~ Beck & Eggeling

Der Blumenstrauß. Die vergängliche Pracht
Fotografie von den Anfängen bis heute

17. Mai bis 29. Juni 2024

anlässlich der düsseldorf photo+ Biennale for Visual and Sonic Media

Mit Nobuyoshi Araki, Max Baur, Boris Becker, Ute Behrend, Viktoria Binschtok, Peter Bömmels, Tim Berresheim, Natalie Czech, Michael Dannenmann, Sam Evans, Jan Paul Evers, Jitka Hanzlová, Axel Hütte, Leiko Ikemura, Benjamin Katz, Annette Kelm, Karin Kneffel, Maximilian Koppernock, August Kotzsch, Heinrich Kühn, Kathrin Linkersdorff, Robert Mapplethorpe, Hartmut Neumann, Roland Schappert, Luzia Simons, Josef Sudek, Michael Wesely, Dr. Wolff+Tritschler und einigen anonymen alten Fotoarbeiten.

Der Blumenstrauß als künstlerische Installation, die der Fotografie vorausgeht, steht im Fokus dieser Gruppenausstellung.

Als klassisches Thema des Stilllebens hat der Blumenstrauß seinen Reiz bis in die Gegenwart nicht verloren. Die arrangierten Fotos von Blumensträußen Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts sind als Vorläufer der inszenierten Fotografie zu verstehen.
Mit diversen fotografischen Positionen wird der Bogen von historischer Fotografie, beispielsweise von Heinrich Kühn, bis hin zu computerbasierter Fotografie von Tim Berresheim gespannt. Anhand dieses Bildsujets wird auch die Veränderung der technischen und inhaltlichen Möglichkeiten von Fotografie aufgezeigt.

Die zeitgenössische „Blumenstraußfotografie“ geht weit über die Natur- oder Dokumentarfotografie hinaus. So haben die Fotokünstler in unterschiedlicher Ausprägung die skulpturale, malerische und konzeptuelle Möglichkeit dieses Stilllebens ausgelotet und hinterfragt.

Seit Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts ist der Blumenstrauß in der Malerei als Stilleben in all seiner arrangierten Pracht gegenwärtig und oft sinnbildlich für die Vergänglichkeit allen Seins dargestellt. Die Fotografie hat die Möglichkeit, den Prozess des Vergänglichen zu begleiten, und oft sind es die bereits verwelkten Blumen, die einen besonderen Reiz in der Wirklichkeitswahrnehmung ausmachen. Nichts zeigt die Wirklichkeit frappierender als die Vergänglichkeit.

quoted from Der Blumenstrauß: Die Vergängliche Pracht ~ Beck & Eggeling

A Bouquet of Flowers. Transient Beauty
Photography from the beginnings to the present day

17th May until 29th June 2024

on the occasion of düsseldorf photo+ Biennale for Visual and Sonic Media

With Nobuyoshi Araki, Max Baur, Boris Becker, Ute Behrend, Viktoria Binschtok, Peter Bömmels, Tim Berresheim, Natalie Czech, Michael Dannenmann, Sam Evans, Jan Paul Evers, Jitka Hanzlová, Axel Hütte, Leiko Ikemura, Benjamin Katz, Annette Kelm, Karin Kneffel, Maximilian Koppernock, August Kotzsch, Heinrich Kühn, Kathrin Linkersdorff, Robert Mapplethorpe, Hartmut Neumann, Roland Schappert, Luzia Simons, Josef Sudek, Michael Wesely, Dr. Wolff+Tritschler and a selection of anonymous historical photographs.

The bouquet of flowers as an artistic installation that precedes photography is the focus of this group exhibition.

As a classic still life subject, the bouquet of flowers has not lost its appeal to the present day. The arranged photographs of bouquets of flowers in the mid-19th century are to be understood as precursors of staged photography.

With various photographic positions, the exhibition ranges from historical photography, for example by Heinrich Kühn, to computer-based photography by Tim Berresheim. This pictorial subject is also used to demonstrate the changes in the technical and content-related possibilities of photography.

Contemporary “bouquet photography” goes far beyond nature or documentary photography. Photographic artists have explored and scrutinized the sculptural, painterly and conceptual possibilities of this still life to varying degrees.

Since the beginning of the 17th century, the bouquet of flowers has been present in painting as a still life in all its arranged splendour, often symbolizing the transience of all existence. Photography has the opportunity to accompany the process of transience, and it is often the flowers that have already withered that create a special charm in the perception of reality. Nothing shows reality more strikingly than transience.

Edna Morton for Elcha studio

**Anthony Barboza ~** Portrait of actress Edna Morton, in costume, early 20th century (studio Elcha, NY) | src getty images

Edna Morton (April 2, 1894 – July 31, 1980) was an American actress who was in films in the 1920s. She starred in mainly race films most of them produced by Reol Productions. Her most notable films being Spitfire (1922), Easy Money (1922), and The Call of His People (1921). She was also in a film by Oscar Micheaux called A Son of Satan (1924). She is known to have been in ten films in total. She was referred to as “the colored Mary Pickford”. (text retrieved from wikipedia entry)