[Nude Study]

Germaine Krull

1930 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

In the years following World War I, an increasing number of professional female photographers claimed subjects traditionally generated by and for men. Among the most personally and creatively independent, Krull drew inspiration from the permissive cabaret culture she had enjoyed in Berlin in the early 1920s. By the time this image was taken, her photographs of industrial structures—dynamic, vertiginous views onto scaffolding and bridges—had already made her a leading figure of New Vision photography, solidified with the publication of her seminal photobook Métal in 1928. Here, she incorporates the aesthetic lessons of that work, including dramatic lighting and disorienting viewpoints, in her study of the female nude.

Artist

Germaine Krull

Date

1930

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gilman Collection, Purchase, Anonymous Gifts, by exchange, 2005