Sunday, 1 August 2010

The Great Munkácsi



A Martin Munkácsi picture from the 1930's
Remember that PRADA S/S 2010 campaign? It's one of my favorites. Especially because it's clear where the  inspiration came from: Martin Munkácsi (1896 - 1963), one of my all time favorite photographers. Munkácsi, born  in Hungary, started his career as a sports photographer. In 1928 he signed up with Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung.  After the nazi's nationalized the magazine in 1934, Munkacsi left for New York, where Carmel Snow lured him into  Harper's Bazaar with a 100.000 $ contract, and the Golden Triangle was born: Snow, Brodovitch and  Munkácsi. Richard Avedon said: " Martin Munkácsi brought a taste for happiness and honesty and a love for women  to what was before him, a joyless, loveless, lying art. Today the world of what is called fashion is peopled  with Munkácsi's babies, his heirs... The art of Munkácsi lay in what he wanted life to be, and he wanted  it to  be splendid. And it was."


PRADA S/S 2001 campaign by Steven Meisel
                                                                                                           
  By the way, Steven Meisel is surely one of those heirs Avedon was talking about...


 TTFN 

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