12th Oct, 2019 16:00

OstLicht Photo Auction Autumn 2019

 
  Lot 27
 

ILSE BING (1899–1998)
Self-portrait with Leica, Paris 1931

Sold for €5,500


Lot details

Estimate: € 5.500–6.000

Gelatin silver print, printed in 1989

26,2 x 29,6 cm

Signed and dated by the photographer in ink in the image upper left, signed and dated (print date) by the photographer in pencil on the reverse

Ilse Bing, born into a grand-bourgeois Jewish family in Frankfurt am Main in 1899, was one of the influential personalities who turned 1930s Paris into a centre of photographic modernism. Her Self-Portrait with Leica of 1931 is a complex portrait, reflecting not just the photographer, but also the photographic idiom of the avantgarde between the wars. The question underlying the auto-portrait is that of her position in the context of creation and influence. Ilse Bing poses with her Leica I — presumably this is her first Leica, purchased in 1929. It is no coincidence that Emmanuel Sougez called her the »queen of the Leica«. In her self-portrait, Bing gives special importance to the camera, the tool of her creations, by positioning it so that it is as prominent as her face. The mirror motif takes on the role of an image within an image. The image has long held its place among the icons of a New Vision; it also stands for an epoch in which women sought to emphasise their independence — using the medium of photography, among others.

Start price: €3.400