Eli Lotar

Eli Lotar, actually: Eliazar Lotar Teodorescu ( born January 30, 1905 in Paris, † May 10, 1969 ibid ) was a French photographer and cameraman of surrealism and the poetic realism.

Life

Eliazar Lotar Teodorescu was born the illegitimate son of the Romanian writer Tudor Arghezi and the Romanian Constanta Zissu in Paris. He grew up in Bucharest, where he received his education. In 1924 he returned to Paris and became a French citizen in 1926. In 1926 he met the German photographer Germaine Krull, whose portrait he painted, [Figure 1 ] and became its assistant and partner. From 1929 to 1932 he had a group photo studio with Jacques -André Boiffard.

On May 28, 1938 Lotar married in Boulogne- Billancourt Elisabeth Makovski. She was of Jewish origin and came from Estonia. During the occupation of France by the Nazis both fled to La Roquette- sur -Siagne (Alpes -Maritimes). After the war Lotar tended to neglect his work and constantly visit the cafes of Montparnasse. Eli Lotar died in Paris on May 10, 1969 during a dinner with his friend Philippe Guérin.

Work

Linked illustration ( Please note copyrights )

Under the stage name Eli Lotar (sometimes performed as Elie Lotar ) he made from about 1927 documentary photographs, including those from the Paris slaughterhouses in La Villette, 1929; a photo with lined pigs feet was entitled Abattoir ( slaughterhouse ) to one of his best known. [Figure 2 ] The slaughterhouse images and two more photographs from La Villette were published in 1930, founded by Georges Bataille Surrealist journal Documents. With his photographs of street vendors and entertainers illustrated Lotar - among other artists - the book La vie de l' argot étrange by Émile Chautard, which dealt with the argot of Paris. The study of the underworld Bill Brandt served as the inspiration for his cityscapes and influenced Brassaï's Paris de nuit relevant picture book of 1933.

For the Théâtre Alfred Jarry Eli Lotar designed photomontages 1930 and worked as a still photographer and cinematographer, among others, Luis Buñuel's 1933 film shot for Las Hurdes (German: Land without bread). In 1936, he worked with Jean Renoir, for his film Une partie de campagne ( Eng.: A Country Outing ) he made the stills. In the same year Jacques Prévert Minotaur Terres de cuites Béotie appeared in the surrealist magazine with 14 photos Lotar from the National Museum of Athens.

1945 turned Lotar a short documentary film about the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers laborers, who ran onto the film festival in Cannes the following year. For the titled after the suburb of Aubervilliers film Jacques Prevert wrote the lyrics of the songs La chanson des enfants on the social needs of suburban youth, Joseph Kosma composed the music.

Reception

Eli Lotar sat in his later years his friend, the sculptor Alberto Giacometti, model for three sculptures. As Giacometti died in 1966, made ​​his brother Diego on the last clay sculpture Lotar, a squatting figure [ Figure 3 ], a plaster cast; a bronze cast of this sculpture he put on the grave stone Giacometti. The cast was stolen and has since been considered lost.

Also Lotar work long seemed lost - until the published photographs. In 1991, the negatives, however, were rediscovered, and opened in 1993, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, an exhibition of Eli Lotar photographs. The exhibition Eli Lotar took place in Paris from 10 November 1993 to 23 January 1994; it was shown in the Art and Exhibition Hall in Bonn from February 4 to May 15, 1994 again.

Lotar named in honor of the city of Aubervilliers in 2001 a park after him.