Further Reading
Barill, Renato.Anni Novanta. Bologna: Galleria d’Arte
Moderna, 1998.
Decter, Joshua.Vik Miuniz. New York: Stux Gallery, 1989.
Kismaric, Susan.‘‘Vik Muniz, New Photography.’’New
York: 13MoMA Magazine, Fall1997.
Lieberman, Rhonda.Traumatic Objects: Theres no Place
Like Home. Sao ̈Paulo, Brazil: Gabinette de Arte Raquel
Arnaud, 1991.
Millazo, Richard.Vik Muniz: the Wrong Logician. New
York and Verona, Italy: Grand Salon, 1993.
Vescoovo, Marisa.Vik Muniz.Sa ̃o Paulo: Gabinete de Arte
Rachel Arnaud, 1998.
Wilson, Beth.Vik Muniz. New York: Stux Gallery, 1989.
Zamudio, Rau ́ l. ‘‘Vik Muniz: Operations with/in Photogra-
phy.’’NYARTS, June 2000.MARTIN MUNKACSI
Hungarian
Martin Munkacsi, New York’s leading fashion
photographer during the 1930s and 1940s, was
born on May 18, 1896 in Koloszsvar, Hungary,
near the town of Munkasc (now Cluj Napoca,
Romania), the historic capital of Transylvania.
The fourth of seven children in a working-class
Jewish family his original surname—either Mer-
merlstein or Marmorstein—was changed, by the
family to Munkasci upon moving to Disco-Szent-
Marton, Hungary (now Tirnavani, Romania); the
new name, invented during this era of pogroms, was
distinctly Hungarian and not identifiably Jewish.
At 16, Munkacsi left home and settled, on his
own, in cosmopolitan Budapest. Bright and ener-
getic, he started his professional life as a writer,
contributing reports on soccer matches and automo-
bile races toAz Est, a sports daily. By 1921, as a self-
taught photographer working with a home-made
camera, Munkacsi was regularly providing sports
photographs forAz Estand documenting perfor-
mances forTheatre Life, a weekly review. Munkac-
si’s natural me ́tier was as a sports photographer; he
displayed a virtuosic talent for capturing, in a still
image, the pure exhilaration of movement.
Munkacsi relocated to Berlin in 1927 and signed a
three-year contract with Ullstein Verlag, the city’s
major publishing house. His first credited story
appeared in the October 14thissue ofBerliner Illu-
strirte Zeiting, Ullstein’s weekly picture magazine.
With a circulation of two million,Berliner Illustrirte
Zeitungwas the most widely read magazine of its
kind in the world and, in the United States, is best
remembered as the template for Life magazine.
Munkacsi’s work appeared in other Ullstein publi-
cations:Die Dame, the German equivalent ofVogue;
Uhu, an ‘‘arty’’ monthly featuring essays and photo-
graphs of nudes; andKnipsen, a book for amateur
photographers. Occasionally, he worked for Ull-
stein’s competitors,Die WocheandThe Studio.
Throughout this period (1930–1934), Munkacsi
claimed—with characteristic bravado and somewhat
questionable credibility—that he was the highest-
paid photographer in Berlin. He did, undeniably,
enjoy great success and traveled extensively on
assignment throughout Europe, Africa, and the
Americas. As Henri Cartier-Bresson later recalled:
‘‘In 1932, I saw a photograph by Martin Munkacsi
of three black children running in to the sea [‘‘Liberia,
c. 1930,’’ published inDas Deutsche Lichtbild, 1932],
and I must say that it is that very photograph which
was for me the spark that set fire to the fireworks...
and made me realize that photography could reach
eternity through the moment. There is in that image
such intensity, spontaneity, such joy of life, such a
prodigy, that I am still dazzled by it even today.’’
During a brief 1933 visit to New York, Munkasci
was hired byHarper Bazaar’s legendary editor Car-
mel Snow to shoot his first fashion layout. Snow had
been introduced to Munkacsi’s photojournalism by
Frederic Varady, a Hungarian artist, and Edward
Steichen, then employed as the chief photographer
for Conde ́Nast. In her memoir, Snow wrote about
that initial shoot, the revolutionary turning point in
fashion photography when Munkacsi took the
model out of the confines of the studio:
The resulting picture of a typical American girl in action,
with her cape billowing out behind her, made fashion
history. Munkacsi’s was the first action photographMUNIZ, VIK