Eva Besnyö

Éva Marianna Besnyő ( born April 29, 1910 in Budapest, † December 12, 2003 in Laren, The Netherlands) was a Hungarian- Dutch photographer. In addition to Emmy Andriesse, Cas Oorthuys and Carel Blazer it is considered as a representative of the flow Nieuwe Photography ( " New Photography ").

Life

Éva Besnyő grew up as one of three sisters in a liberal Jewish family in Budapest. She lived in the same house as Endre Friedmann, who later inspired by Éva Besnyő, photography and turn to Robert Capa will call. At eighteen, she went for two years in the teaching in the field of architecture and portrait photography at the Budapest photographer József Pécsi ( 1889-1956 ). He gave Besnyő the Council to go after their training to Berlin, which she followed in 1930.

By the beginning of 1931, Éva Besnyő worked in the laboratory of the advertising photographer René Ahrlé, then under the press photographer Peter Weller, who among other things, many of their recordings under his own name sold to the Berlin Illustrirte newspaper. At the end of 1931, she rented a studio in the Nachodstraße in Berlin- Wilmersdorf, but continues also worked on journalistic reportage, she offered through the agency Neofot. In her time in Berlin, they still used their close friendship with the photographer and designer Gyorgy Kepes (1906-2001), who was in frequent contact with László Moholy -Nagy, and Robert Capa, who lived as a student in Berlin now.

Against the backdrop of growing anti-Semitism in the German Reich Éva Besnyő emigrated to Amsterdam. She married there in 1933 the Dutch filmmaker John Fernhout ( Johannes Hendrik Fernhout / John Ferno, 1913-1987 ), the son of the painter Charley Toorop. It linked in Amsterdam, among others Contacts with the graphic designer Paul Schuitema, the photographer Carel Blazer and the architect Alexander Bodon.

In 1937, she was, " '37 photo " which was held together with Cas Oorthuys and Carel Blazer, the committee for the international exhibition in the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum. For the preparation of the exhibition she visited Henri Cartier- Bresson, Brassaï and Florence Henri in Paris.

Between 1942 and 1944 appeared under Éva Besnyő while her husband was staying at that time in China and the United States. Besnyő worked during the German occupation of the Netherlands, together with her future second husband, for the Dutch resistance. She made passport photos for fake papers. They also sought a " linearization " which she also obtained using a fake birth certificate, which procured her mother.

In 1945 the couple divorced Besnyő / Fernhout. In 1946 she married the Dutch graphic designer Wim Brusse, with whom she had the son Bertus (1945 ) and the daughter Yara (1948 ).

Due to their preference for reports Éva Besnyő was a well-known photographer of the Dutch women's movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1987 her book with new eyes in Berlin. Berlin 1930-1932 published. It contains photographs from Besnyős time in Berlin. 1991 Éva Besnyős work was presented in a solo exhibition, also in Berlin. In 1999, she received the prestigious Dr. Erich Salomon Award for humanistic photojournalism of the German Society of Photography.

Work

Besnyő began with recordings from the slums Kiserdö in Budapest; more pictures like An unemployed in the Jordaan, on the Stock Exchange, Amsterdam 1932 or pawnshop M. Cosman are also inspired social criticism, but the imagery poetic rather than combative. After Miklós Horthy took power "Art and Photography homage to the Magyar nationalism " should ( Besnyő ), so they emigrated to Berlin, as some colleagues. The city was considered the center of upheaval and experimentation, "I came to Berlin and since the light went on! " So Besnyő. She discovered films of the Russian avant-garde, experienced the theater of Erwin Piscator and attended the " Marxist Workers School". For their photo technology meant: "At the beginning I photographed people. Sometimes sleeping; but they were always subordinate to the formal principle and had no meaning as individuals. " Her work at this time is characterized by clean lines, subtly -designed structures, unusual viewpoints, steep supervisions, rich gradations of light guide and the gray values. The bold diagonal express their new vision: " In Hungary, the diagonal was in the air, in Berlin she went right through me. " The viewer to be active for perception, because reality does not reveal directly, " the friend abgewinnen new views. "

Besnyő photographed almost deserted streets, with surreal effect ( Starnberger Straße), it shows people from behind ( or Koksarbeiter Two girls for protection ). It borders the city on almost cubist ( German Stadium ); Face and lines now dominate her work, as the constructivists. In the rise of the National Socialists recognize the principle of violence applied: " On the road were all the brown shirts with clubs ... There were clashes in the left cafes where they people and the whole café beat to pieces. It was a violent atmosphere. "When the agency notifying them to conceal their name, it sounded too Jewish, she leaves the city and travels to Amsterdam. There are 1934 her first solo exhibition. She is a member of the " Federation of Artists for the defense of cultural rights ". This covenant is organizing an exhibition ' Olympics under the dictatorship ", in which it participates. The exhibition " photo '37 " they organized with a leading position. During this time, she lives much of the contract work, such as in architectural photography, what she did not like: " ... I had to take the architecture always without people. "

When the Germans bomb Rotterdam, it scans debris scenes whose image effect overwhelmed at that time; later she is ashamed: " a death blow my aesthetic photography."

In the 1970s, she documents the actions of the oarlocks Mina: "There was ... the subject of much more important than the form. " Now it is a hundred times everyday situations that show the spatial or atmospheric tension. She gets the Annie Romein Prize of the magazine Opzij for " her outstanding contribution to the historiography ... the feminist movement ... that does not by words such can be played. "

The work Besnyős thus reflects predominantly a merger of artistic work and their participation in public life.

Exhibitions (selection)

• 2011/2012: Eva Besnyö, Photographer 1910-2003. Budapest - Berlin - Amsterdam. The hidden Museum / Berlin Gallery, Berlin.
• 2007: Onbekende Photo 's - Eva Besnyö. Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam
• 2005: Kindred Spirits. Hungarian photographer from 1914 to 2003. Martin -Gropius -Bau, Berlin
• 2003: De Keurcollectie - Eva Besnyö. FOAM, Photography Museum, Amsterdam