Munkacsi

Martin. Pseudonym of Martin Marmorstein (1896-1963). Hungarian photographer. Worked mostly in the United States. Always took photographs from a completely original angle, for example, outside, in the water, or from a vehicle at high speed, all of which made him a master and were imitated by many photographers of subsequent generations, from Avedon to Horvat. His style took the name of “realism in movement.” He began his career in Hungary as a journalist for the sporting journal AZ Est, for which he produced such innovative and dynamic photographs that he soon became considered the top Hungarian sports photojournalist. This explains very well the bold perspectives and the dynamic style that he then applied to his fashion photography. He lived for some time in Berlin, but with the rise of the Nazis, moved to New York in 1934. It was here that he caused a sensation with his first fashion shoot, which was published in 1933 in Harper’s Bazaar, a magazine with which he went on to have a long relationship. The photo shows a young woman, healthy and fit, running down a beach in a bathing suit. He also published pictures in the Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung (whilst living in Berlin), Ladies Home Journal, Life, and Town and Country. Munkacsi’s originality made him a much-followed master, both by artists dedicated to fashion, such as Richard Avedon, and by photojournalists like Henri Cartier-Bresson. In “his” New York, both the Museum of Modern Art, in 1975, and the International Center of Photography, in 1978, held important retrospectives of his work, and in 1996 the Magyar Fotografiai museum in Budapest held the exhibition Munkacsi Munkacsi.