"First Pictures": New York through the Lens of Emigrated European Photographers in the 1930s and 1940s
Helene Roth’s essay on German-speaking émigrés photographers is part of the recent outcoming publication “Contact Zones. Photography, Migration and Cultural Encounters in the United States” edited by Justin Carville and Sigrid Lien with the publishing house Leuven University Press.
In her essay “ ‘First Pictures’: New York through the Lens of Emigrated European Photographers in the 1930s and 1940s” she attempted to analyse the first pictures by émigrés photographers as Josef Breitenbach, Lisettel Model and Hermann Landshoff, which were made shortly after the arrival to New York. How could they be read in the context of (e)migration and the urban space? Can photography serve as a visual medium for ameliorating exilic experiences and approaching new homelands and cultural encounters? Questions pursued in the projects of METROMOD.
The essay is accessible via the Open Access version. Enjoy the reading!