Are you an artist or a lady or gentleman of the world? Are you dreaming of a photography that not only portrays you but also gives your entire being the right expression? Then look no further, but travel to Frankfurt am Main, more precisely to the centrally located Börsenstraße and visit the "Workshop for Photographic Art" of the sisters Nini and Carry Hess, you will not regret it!
Sara Stefanie Hess, called Nini (born 1884) and Cornelia Hess, nicknamed Carry (born 1889) grew up in an upper middle-class Jewish family in Frankfurt am Main. Although there is no definite information about their education, it can be assumed that both were given an extensive upbringing. The interest in art and photography must have been present and encouraged in the sisters at a young age, because as early as 1912, the then 23-year-old Carry won the silver medal at the "General German Photographic Exhibition" in Heidelberg, in the category "Artistic Photography". A year later, the studio in Börsenstraße was opened.
New forms of expression
The new photographic style emerging at the beginning of the 20th century, which turned away from the representational forms of painting and placed more emphasis on the individuality of the sitter, also found great favour with the Hess sisters. Even at the beginning of their careers, the two women were regarded in professional circles as prominent representatives of this lively portrait style and works by them were printed as examples in textbooks and manuals.
In 1926, Carry Hess published an article entitled "When I Photograph", which gives a very good insight into her working methods and the style of the time. In this essay, she also addresses the problems that arise when photographing a wide variety of people, because a natural lack of inhibition in front of the camera is not given to everyone. In order to create a relaxed atmosphere, Carry Hess first tries to lure the subject out of his or her reserve through conversation, and according to her, the most suitable subjects are those that revolve around work or leisure and culture. If this doesn't help, the gramophone has to be used, which, always well supplied with the latest dance hits, helps the sitter to dance and thus to be in a good mood and look lively.
But the right atmosphere in the photo studio is only half the battle. More is needed to achieve a successful shot, which Carry Hess describes below:
Even if the lens only reproduces what you set it to, I try to eavesdrop on my model's characteristic movement, the formal expression of his personality, the lighting that particularly emphasises these things, and let the lens go into action at the moment when all this is at the common culmination point.
From photo studio to artists' meeting place
Through this modern and sensitive approach, the Atelier Hess very quickly establishes itself as one of the best-known addresses in Frankfurt and beyond. Since the sisters maintain contacts with the artistic circles of the city, the studio becomes a popular meeting place for the scene, which regularly comes together to discuss art and theatre. Over time, this also results in many recordings of actors and dancers, which are certainly unique in their progressiveness and expressiveness.
In addition to commissions for portraits of actors and dancers, the sisters soon celebrated success in the field of advertising photography. The famous Berlin publishing house Ullstein-Verlag (one of the highest-circulation publishers of the Weimar Republic) prints numerous photographs by the two of them on various topics such as fashion, art, society, entertainment or sport, which further promotes their fame and popularity. Over the years, celebrities repeatedly came to the Hess studio to have their portraits taken. The most famous among them are certainly Thomas and Katia Mann, Carl Zuckmayer or Max Beckmann, who was so enthusiastic about the result that he had several prints made at once, which he then gave away signed to various acquaintances.
As for many other Jewish artists, it became increasingly dangerous for Nini and Carry Hess in Germany after Hitler's rise to power. Carry fled to Paris in 1933, was temporarily interned in the Gurs camp and survived under the most difficult conditions. Nini remains in Frankfurt, where she witnesses the destruction of the studio and archive by the Nazis in 1938. In the early 1940s she was deported and presumably murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp (there are no reliable records of this). In poor health, Carry spent the last years of her life in Chur (Switzerland), where she died on 17 August 1957 at the age of 68 after an exhausting struggle with the authorities for compensation.
What remains
Nini and Carry Hess were without doubt unique artists of their time and pioneers in the medium of photography. Like hardly anyone else, they succeeded in capturing the individual characteristics of each sitter and presenting them in a fitting mood. Depending on the model, the photographs are melancholic, expressive, thoughtful or humorous. They are pictures that do not leave you cold, that you want to look at again and again because they captivate you with their expressive visual language. Piercing eyes that fix the viewer, elaborate dancers' poses or oblivious gazes into the distance - the photographs are testimonies to an era that was characterised by artistic diversity and innovation and that unfortunately had to come to an end far too quickly.
If you now feel like taking a look at the wonderful works of the Hess sisters yourself, you still have the opportunity to do so until 22 May this year. Take a trip to the Museum Giersch at Schaumainkai 83 in Frankfurt am Main and visit the exhibition, I highly recommend it!
I love my profession because it constantly gives me new ideas by confronting me anew every day with the problem of "man" in every form. (Carry Hess)
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