Board_Advisors_etc 3..5

Olympic Palace Hotel. It was this exposure to an
intercontinental clientele that had given her the
idea to open the Paris studio. To increase their
photography opportunities there Kallmus worked
hard to establish solid relationships with editors of
magazines in German- and French-speaking coun-
tries. Kallmus adjusted to the new city but the
move caused a rift in the relationship with Benda.
He eventually returned to Vienna.
In Paris during the twenties, d’Ora’s clientele
drew from similar demographics as it had done in
Vienna: artists, entertainers, and women of the
highest social ranks were among her sitters. The
designer Coco Chanel, the actor Maurice Chevalier,
and the singer Mistinguett were among those who
sought her expressive and glamorous photographic
style and with whom she became friends. Sittings
with the American actress Anna May Wong, Amer-
ican dancer Josephine Baker, and the painter
Tamara de Lempicka likewise produced some of
her most memorable photographs. Her cool, calcu-
lated fashion and entertainment photos and
portraits were sometimes described as style
moderne—the French version of the German
Neue Sachlichkeitor New Objectivity.
With the Nazi occupation of France in 1940,
Kallmus spent the remaining war years hiding in
the small remote town of Lalouvesc, France. Dur-
ing that time, she lost her sister and an assistant to
the extermination camps. After the war, she
returned to Paris and lived a quiet existence. She
resumed making portraits with the assistance of a
young Dutch photographer Jan de Vries. These
portraits express a reflexivity not seen before in
her earlier works.
Other post-World War II subjects dealt with
changing circumstances related to war trauma. She
did a series of photographs in a refugee camp close
to Vienna and work originating in an asylum for
refugee women. Her themes include a series docu-
menting daily activities in Parisian abattoirs or ani-
mal slaughterhouses. As a late body of work these
images augment symbolic indictments of war and
the Holocaust. Kallmus was killed in a motorcycle
accident, October 30, 1963, in Steiermark, Austria.

MargaretDenny

Seealso:Fashion Photography; History of Photo-
graphy: Interwar Years; Portraiture

Biography

Born Dora Philippine Kallmus 20 February 1881, Vienna,
Austria. Five-month apprenticeship in Berlin with

Nicola Perscheid 1907. Opened studio called ‘‘d’Ora’’

in Vienna, fall 1907. Hired Arthur Benda, Perscheid’s

first assistant as technical assistant, association lasted

1907–1926. Operated a seasonal studio in Berlin 1913;

began theatrical photographs in 1915. Photographed

coronation festivities of King of Hungary 1916/17.

Moved to Paris and opened a studio in 1925, specialized

in fashion and entertainment photography. Operated a

studio in the Olympic Palace Hotel in the health resort of

Karlsbad, Czechoslovakia, during the summers from

1921 to 1926. Lived in seclusion near a small rural

town Lalouvesc, France, during Nazi occupation;

returned to Paris at the end of the war, opened studio

with assistant Dutch photographer Jan de Vries until

1955. Died 30 October 1963, Steiermark, Austria.

Selected Works

Alma Mahler-Werfel, c. 1915

Maria Likarz, c. 1916

Expressionist Portrait of the Actor Harry Walden, Vienna,

1918

Die Revueta ̈nzerin Josephine Baker, 1928

Anna May Wong, c. 1929

Femme dans une robe Chinoise, c. 1930

Danie`le Parola, 1931

The Small Servant, 1933

Selected Exhibitions

1906 Photoklub; Vienna, Austria

1909 Kunstsalon Hugo Heller; Vienna, Austria

1912 Kunstsalon Hugo Heller; Vienna, Austria

1913 Kunstsalon Keller and Reiner; Berlin, Germany

1914 Professional Photographer’s Society of New York

Annual Convention; Buffalo, New York

1914 Meisterbund o ̈sterreichischer Photographen, Arkaden-

hof des k.u.k.O ̈sterreichischen Museums fu ̈r Kunst und

Industrie, Vienna, Austria

1916 Galerie Arnot; Vienna, Austria

1958 Galerie Montaigne; Paris, France

1969 Staatliche Lichtbildstelle; Hamburg, Germany

1971 Landeslichtbildstelle; Bremen, Germany

1980 Museum fu ̈r Kunst und Gewerbe; Hamburg, Ger-

many

Further Reading

Blake, A. H. ‘‘The Work of Madame d’Ora.’’Photo-Era,

29, 6 (December 12): 280–284.

Faber, Monika.D’Ora: Vienna and Paris 1907–1957: The

Photographs of Dora Kallmus. Poughkeepsie, NY: Vas-

sar College Art Gallery, 1987.

Kempe, Fritz. Nicola Perscheid/Arthur Benda/Madame

d’Ora. Hamburg: Museum fu ̈r Kunst und Gewerbe,

1980.

‘‘Madame d’Ora on Her Methods.’’Wilson’s Photographic

Magazine49 (1912): 485–486.

Rosenblum, Naomi.A History of Women Photographers.

New York: Abbeville Press, 2000.

MADAME D’ORA