The great fashion photographer Martin Munkacci was born in Hungary in 1896, spent his 20s and 30s in Berlin, and immigrated to New York in 1934. For many years he was the best paid photographer of his time and was a huge influence on photographers such as Richard Avedon, his work going out of style at the time of his death in 1963. More recently, Munchassy emerged from history as one of the most significant talents of the twentieth century, shaping the beginnings of modern photojournalism, setting in motion a previously static medium and combining precise fact-finding with a very formal aesthetic standard. Munkassi was the outstanding representative of “Neues Sehen” (“A New Way of Seeing”), by far the most significant contribution of photography to cutting-edge art. His fashion and sports photographs were both groundbreaking and unsurpassed. Until now, however, all of these works have been scattered around the world, and much of it has been lost, although the Ulstein Archive in Berlin holds an extensive collection of Munchacci’s work from Hungary and Germany. Martin Munkacci collects and mounts images of this mid-century master like never before. It contains photographs from each of his artistic phases, as well as several photographs and reports not seen since their original publication in magazines. The large collection of 318 newtons offers a valuable glimpse into the intense, technologically obsessive, glamorous and controversial beginnings of photography.
