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| Tate Modern, London: 'Everything is going to be Alright' |
Today we celebrate the rights of women. This date, according to my research, chosen because of the women factory workers in St Petersburg in 1917 descending into the streets to demand ‘bread and peace’, the right to vote, and an end to discrimination in the workplace. (thanks to @LarrereMathilde historian and teacher)
As an amateur photographer, I’m particularly interested in those women who were professionally skilled in this art. I recently visited the Tate Modern to see the Dora Maar exhibition (you’ll need to be quick if you want to see it, it ends March 15).
It was a grey day, grey skies, grey river, grey shapes on the London skyline. (Which is not a complaint! I like greys and monochrome.)
The Tate Modern building, (formerly the Bankside Power Station) with its red and mustard brick facade, is colourful and appealing.
Dora Maar (1907 – 1997) had a long career, as photographer and artist. She had a surrealist phase (she was a close friend of Nusch and Paul Eluard) but the photographs which I liked best were those of street scenes in Paris and Barcelona, old and sometimes dilapidated buildings, light and tree-shadows on rain-damp streets.
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| Dora Maar: street scene detail |
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Gerda Taro's career was much shorter (1910 - 1937). A talented photographer, she died very young, in 1937, while pursuing her profession in the Spanish Civil War.
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| Gerda Taro: credit wikimedia commons |
She was the companion and lover of the famous Hungarian-born Robert Capa, who survived her, but he also died too young, while taking photographs in the Indochina War in 1954.
I’m currently reading an excellent novel about Gerda Taro, The Girl with the Leica, by Helena Janeczek. Many thanks to European Literature network review, where I discovered this book.
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