Madame d' Ora (in Extreme landscape)

BIOGRAPHIE MADAME D ́ORA

Exement tip: 21 December 2017 to 18 March 2018 im Hamburger Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe.
Madame d'Ora: "Machen mich schön!"

Madame d'Ora, actually Dora Philippine Kalmus, 1881 - 1963, learns her craft at the "K.K. Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt für Fotografie", to which she is the first woman to gain access, but only to the theory courses. In 1907, together with Arthur Benda, she opened the Atelier d'Ora, where the High Society, artists and intellectuals of Vienna, such as Gustav Klimt and Arthur Schnitzler, came and went. In Karlovy Vary, the artist maintains a summer studio, and of course she is also at home in Berlin in the 20s.

Deeply rooted in the art and fashion scene, the d'Ora has lived in Paris since 1925 and portrays personalities such as Josephine Baker and Coco Chanel. As a fashion photographer, she increasingly works for major magazines and Parisian fashion houses such as Chanel and Lanvin.

This peak phase of her artistic work comes to an abrupt end with the invasion of Paris by the German troops, Madame d'Ora, a Jew, has to flee. Her sister, with whom she lives in Paris, is deported and, like many other relatives, murdered. After the war, political themes also found their way into d'Ora's oeuvre, so she again photographed portraits of society and artists, but also refugee camps.

Madame d'Ora is a pioneer of photography and an extraordinary, style-defining artistic personality not only for her time.