74 21 September 2019I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.ukI subscribe 0330 333 1113
A
t school I was told
to produce a project
that compared the
work of a famous
European with that of a British
person in the same field. I can’t
recall how I’d come across
German photographer Walter
Nurnberg, but I decided to hold
his portraits next to those of
Lord Snowdon’s to determine
whose were ‘better’. At the
time I assumed Nurnberg
must have had to work much
harder to make something
of himself, and I found his
carefully constructed lighting
and composition far more
skilfully accomplished than
Snowdon’s ‘snaps’ of his famous
chums. Good God, Snowdon
didn’t even use flash most
of the time, while Nurnberg
used in it spades. (I have
since, I’m glad to say, come to
appreciate Snowdon’s ability
to craft a natural atmosphere
a little more.)
I bring up this childhood
memory only because when I
first saw this striking portrait
by Gerty Simon’s I was struck
by how close its style is to that
of Herr Nurnberg’s. Nurnberg
made a name for himself as an
industrial photographer, and
imported much of the hard,
graphic and three-dimensional
lighting techniques from that
genre into his portrait work.
This portrait of the artist and
sculptor Renée Sintenis
demonstrates a remarkable
similarity, and one that leads
me to really like this picture.
Looking into Simon’s
background it makes sense
that she fled from Berlin to
London at the same time as
Nurnberg – in 1933, as the
Nazi party came to power in
Germany and made life
difficult for all sorts of artists.
Although they were quite
different in age they were
obviously influenced to an
extent by similar ideas, and
there’s a strong stroke of
hard-shadow Bauhaus in
both of them.Valuingthe sitter
I have read that Gerty Simon
used a Hollywood style in her
portraits, but I don’t think
that’s accurate. She often used
hard, directional lighting but
that’s about as close as it gets.
Hers is a more factual style –
less glamorising – but still with
a sense of elevating the subject
to a higher status so we know
we should worship and adulate.
I think she valued different
characteristics in a sitter too
than the conventional ideas
of physical beauty that tend
to dominate Hollywood’s
fictional portraiture.
We get very caught up in
the idea that portraits are
supposed to flatter, but that
almost always leads to a
dishonest depiction. This
portrait, however, appears
to be the result of careful
observation of the subject’s
physical characteristics and
concentrates on showing us the
photographer’s experience of
the person. The look is quite
industrial, and seems designed
to emphasise the structural
features of Sintenis’s face, the
length of her limbs and fingers,
and her sharp angular haircut.Other portraits I’ve seen of
Sintenis glamourise her in the
Hollywood fashion, with soft
focus and glowing highlights,
but in concentrating on
making her attractive they
neglect to pay attention to
her intellect. In this portrait
we can see Sintenisis’s
creativity, the complex skills
of her hands in moulding the
figures she sculpted – and she
looks far more interesting. The
slightly low camera angleforces us to look up at her, and
the dramatic lighting could be
borrowed from a statue lit up
at night in some city square –
it lends her an iconic sense
of power. It really is very
effective, and offers us all
lots to learn.
You can see more of Gerty
Simon’s photographs on
display at the Wiener Library
in London until 15 October.
Check out our review on
page 9 for more details.© THE BERNARD SIMON ESTATE, WIENER LIBRARY COLLECTIONS‘In this portrait we can see Sintenis’s
creativity, the complex skills of her hands
in moulding the fi gures she sculpted’
Photographer and journalistDamien Demolderhas worked in the photographic publishing industry since 1997 and is the former editor ofAmateur Photographer. He writes regularly about photography for a
number of leading publications and has also been a judge on a number of prestigious international photo competitions. See his website atwww.damiendemolder.com.
Final AnalysisDamien Demolder considers...‘Renée Sintenis’, c. 1929-32, by Gerty SimonPhoto Critique