Review of ‘Another Eye: Women Refugee Photographers in Britain after 1933’ by Ellie Howard /Photomonitor

Lore Lisbeth Waller in her studio, circa 1945. Courtesy of Anne Zahalka

  • Another Eye: Women Refugee Photographers in Britain 1933 – 1969 /

  • Reviewed by Ellie Howard 

  • Four Corners / London / England

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    “A survey of Jewish émigré photographers, titled Another Eye: women refugee photographers in Britain after 1993, begins with poignancy. Slightly jaundiced and rumpled at the corners, the framed pages of Erika Koch’s album show photographs of relaxed inter-war years, stretching across the Berlin seasons: from a swim-suited pair of youth, eyes closed to the sunlight illuminating their faces, through to winter snow. The snapshots are ghosts of Koch’s pre-emigration life, a casualty of war, but cobbled together as a professional portfolio the numbered photographs speak volumes of her hopefulness. In a wider sense, the portfolio symbolises the itinerant nature of female émigré photographers and their feverish industry once in exile.

    The exhibition brings into immediate focus the careers of eighteen photographers, whose works deeply influenced British visual culture; but have been neglected by it [1]. Grouping female photographers can run the risk of essentialism, but the curatorial thread reveals the staggering diversity of approaches, and photographic practices, to which they lent their shared experience. Further, it makes connections between the photographers’ displacement and their versatility as photographers. As Nachum Gidal writes, regarding Jewish practitioners, “there is a discernible quest to explore the unknown, to experiment, to take risks, to accept new ideas, to find and fight for new vistas as well as new visions.” [2] The viewer must tease out their individual paths through examining how each woman carved a niche, or pushed the boundaries of her photographic license. ”

    The full text is available on the direct link.

    Catalogue of the exhibition is available here.