Down Stairs

Elisabeth Hase

ca. 1948 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

In this self-portrait, Hase appears to have tripped, or perhaps to have thrown herself, face-down on a flight of stairs. In her most intriguing work, including this example, the artist experimented with staged scenarios and narratives exploring feminine identity, as would Cindy Sherman half a century later. Another such self-portrait shows her enacting a tearful confession to an anonymous clergyman. Hase turned to photography after beginning her career in the early 1920s as a student of avant-garde graphic design and typography. Despite being a lesser-known photographer, she established a studio in Frankfurt and pursued a variety of subjects, including portraits and still lifes, street scenes, modern architectural views, and botanical studies.

Artist

Elisabeth Hase

Date

ca. 1948

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Twentieth-Century Photography Fund, 2016