Gisèle Freund
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gisèle Freund (November 19, 1908 or 1912 - March 31, 2000) was a German-born French photographer, famous for her documentary photographs and portraits of writers and artists. Her best-known book is Photographie et société (1974), about the uses and abuses of the photographic medium.
[edit] Early life
Freund was born near Berlin to a wealthy Jewish family. Her father was a keen art collector with an interest in the work of photographer Karl Blossfeldt, who was producing his close-up studies exploring the forms of natural objects. Freund's father gave her a Leica camera as a present for her high school graduation. At university she became an active member of a student socialist group and was determined to use photography as an integral part of her socialist practice.
In 1933, with Hitler taking over she was doubly threatened as a socialist activist and also as a Jew, and managed to escape to Paris, her negatives strapped around her body to get them past the border guards.
[edit] Notable work
In 1936 Freund photographed the effects of the Depression in England for Life Magazine. Freund's dissertation was published in book form by Adrienne Monnier (1892-1955).One of her best-known early works shows one of the last political street demonstrations in Germany before Hitler took power.
