Martin Munkácsi, a photographer’s photographer.
Berlin is a great city for photography exhibitions, and Martin-Gropius-Bau is the showplace for the biggest. In the past few years they have held retrospectives from photographers like Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and August Sander and an exhibition from the contemporary Robert Polidori. Currently, there is a Martin Munkácsi retrospective at Gropius-Bau.
What strikes me about the show is that, for someone who was so successful (he earned 100,000 dollars a year in 1940), few of his photographs have become icons. Here are three that I think are well known:
Of the photograph on the left, Henri Cartier-Bresson later said, “When I
saw the photograph of Munkacsi of the black kids running in a wave I couldn’t believe
such a thing could be caught with the camera. I said damn it, I took my camera and
went out into the street.”
Munkácsi was a news reporter and fashion photographer. Perhaps much of what he photographed belonged to a particular era, related to the famous personalities of the day, fashions, and the all the goings-on of society, and perhaps that kept his individual images from remaining well known. A thorough and hard-working photographer, his work leaves us with an impression of the esthetics of his age.
Looking at his photos, there is the strength of form, and humour. They are beautiful, perfectly framed, evoking a particular richness that’s rare.
Included in the exhibition are some quotes from Munkácsi, which reveal a brilliance not always attributed to photographers. In 1935, in an issue of Harpar’s Bazaar, he published some of his ideas on photography under the title, “Think While You Shoot,” revealing how rigorous a photographer he was. Here’s an excerpt:
Never pose your subjects. Let them move about naturally. All great photographs
today are snapshots. Don’t let the pretty girl stop to put her hair to rights. If Grandma
is sleeping, do not wake her. If Grandpa is reading his morning paper, don’t ask him
to lower it. If you get just his eyes over the paper top you may have a better portrait
than if you take his whole face. Take back views. Take running views. Our cameras
today allow us one-thousandth of a second. Pick unexpected angles, but never
without reason. Lie down on your back. Climb ladders. I have taken automobile races
in Germany, lashed to the side of a racing automobile. I have gone into a street
crowed with a false lens pointed at some harmless group of grinning school children
and the real lens focused hard on the unconscious victim.
He ends the explanation of his craft with:
My “trick†– is there one? Well, perhaps a bitter youth with many changes of
occupation, with the necessity of trying everything from writing poetry to berry
picking. These difficult early years probably constitute the sources of my modest
photographic activity.
(Right click to save the PDF from the exhibition, scroll down for English.)
And a survivor he was, along with other Hungarian photogaphers like Capa and Brassäi who left their native land, went to Berlin, and then onwards.
Other resources on the net:
- The exhibition catalog at Steidl.
- Martin Munkácsi entry in the Wikipedia.
- A Google blog search for Munkácsi turns up surprisingly little.
- Martin Munkácsi at Flickr.com to see a few snaps from a Munkácsi exhibition.
- Also interesting, The Hungarian Museum of Photography, Kecskemét, Hungary.
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