Martin Munkácsi
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Martin Munkácsi (born Marmorstein/Marmelstein, 1896, Klausenburg, - 1963) was a notable Hungarian photographer, who began his career as a sports photojournalist in Germany and Hungary before arriving in the United States in 1934. Thereafter, he worked as a fashion photographer who preferred to photograph the natural movements of models, rather than stationary, artificial poses.
Munkácsi's name might be forgotten today if not for the influence of a single photo taken in 1929 or 1930, Three Boys at Lake Tanganyika, on the young Henri Cartier-Bresson. The frame of a fleeting instant of bodies at their most dynamic in a strong geometrical composition can be seen as a wellspring of Cartier-Bresson's subsequent style. Cartier-Bresson commented, "I suddenly understood that photography can fix eternity in a moment. It is the only photo that influenced me. There is such intensity in this image, such spontaneity, such joie de vivre, such miraculousness, that even today it still bowls me over." Richard Avedon also felt a strong affinity for Munkácsi's photography.
In addition to photojournalism and fashion, his work includes notable portraits, including those of Katharine Hepburn, Leslie Howard, Jean Harlow, and Jane Russell. Berlin's Ullstein Archives and Hamburg's F. C. Gundlach collection are home to two of the largest collections of Munkácsi's work.
