Germaine Krull: Photographer of Modernity

Germaine Krull: Photographer of Modernity
Category: Photographer Monographs & Art Books
Reviews: star star star star star
Author: Germaine Krull, Kim Sichel
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication Date: 1999
Print Length: 363 pages
Language: English
Price: paid paid paid

Germaine Krull (1897-1985) led an extraordinary life that spanned nine decades and four continents. She witnessed many of the high points of modernism and recorded some of the major upheavals of the twentieth century. Her photographs include avant-garde montages, ironic studies of female nudes, press propaganda shots, as well as some of the most successful commercial and fashion images of her day. Her political commitments led her from communist allegiance to incarceration in Russia as a counterrevolutionary to support of the Free French cause against Hitler to a reclusive existence among Tibetan monks in India. Kim Sichel's study of this remarkable artist reveals a life of deep convictions, implausible transformations, complex emotional relationships, and inspired achievements.

Krull refused to limit herself to one long-term relationship, one geographical region, or one set of religious and moral beliefs. Contemporary critics ranked her with Man Ray and André Kertesz. Younger photographers such as Berenice Abbott looked up to her. Yet until recently the absence of an archive has made a proper evaluation of Krull's contribution to photography and to modernism difficult if not impossible. In this book, Sichel examines Krull's autobiographical texts and photographic oeuvre to present and unravel the rich mythology that Krull fabricated around her life and work. The chapters follow the geographical and chronological sequence of Krull's life, moving from Munich to Moscow to Berlin to Amsterdam to Paris to Brazil to Africa to Bangkok and other locations. This book, which accompanies the first major retrospective exhibition on Krull, should secure Krull's rightful place among the masters of twentieth-century photography.

Selected Book by This Photographer

Germaine Krull

2015 - Editions Hazan

Germaine Krull, Michel Frizot

 

Books From the Same Publisher

Guadalupe Rosales: Tumbados

Sep 2026 - The MIT Press

Guadalupe Rosales


Carrie Mae Weems (October Files)

2021 - The MIT Press

Carrie Mae Weems, Sarah Lewis, Christine Garnier


Beijing Photographs, 1993-2003

2019 - The MIT Press

Ai Weiwei, John Tancock, Stephanie H. Tung


When I Was a Photographer

2015 - The MIT Press

Nadar

 

Various Small Books: Referencing Various Small Books by Ed Ruscha

2013 - The MIT Press

Jeff Brouws, Wendy Burton, Hermann Zschiegner

 

Bernd and Hilla Becher: Cooling Towers

2006 - ‎ The MIT Press

Bernd and Hilla Becher

 

AAP Magazine Travels 2026
 

expand_circle_rightLatest Books in This Category


Win a Solo Exhibition in November