Board_Advisors_etc 3..5

an ‘‘open window’’ to the reality of the outside
world. After the outbreak of the Abyssinian war
in 1936, Auerbach shut down Ishon and visited
Grete Stern in London. In the British capital, she
met the likes of Bertolt Brecht, also in exile,
whom she had the opportunity to photograph.
Because Stern was to immigrate to Argentina,
Auerbach intended to take over her London stu-
dio but was refused the requisite work and resi-
dence permits.
In 1937, she married Walter Auerbach and in
April they immigrated to the United States, settling
in Elkins Park near Philadelphia close to relatives.
While Auerbach toured the suburbs of Philadel-
phia as a baby photographer, both she and her
husband worked for the art collection of the Les-
sing-Rosenwald family in Jenkintown, Pennsylva-
nia. Photographing the prints collection allowed
Auerbach to explore even further new photo-
graphic procedures, experimenting with infrared
and ultra-violet light to reveal restoration work
and changes made to prints. During this period
the photographer couple also made use of the
carbo printing process. She and her husband
entered the so-called New York School circles,
where Auerbach took a photograph of an as-yet-
unknown Willem de Kooning with his wife Elaine.
Auerbach separated from her husband in 1944
and went to New York, where she rented part of
the studio belonging to the painter Fairfield Porter,
whose brother, Eliot, was also a photographer. As a
freelancer, she received commissions from Time
magazine andColumbia Masterworks. In 1946 she
traveled to Buenos Aires, where she met Grete Stern
for the first time in a decade. In 1946 and 1948
Auerbach made film and photographic studies of
babies and small children for the Menninger Foun-
dation, a research institute based in Topeka, Kan-
sas, and produced photographs and two 16-mm
films,Mounting Tension, about the behavior of
infants. In 1953 she traveled extensively to Europe
(Greece, Majorca, Germany, and Austria). After a
visit to the photographer Eliot Porter in Maine in
1953, she decided to accompany him on a photo-
graphic journey to Mexico in the fall of 1955. Dur-
ing this trip, the two photographers collaborated on
a large color-photo documentation of Mexican
churches, published some 30 years later:Mexican
Churches(1987), andMexican Celebrations(1990).
In her 60s, Auerbach reinvented herself again,
and worked until 1986 with children suffering
from learning disabilities. From 1984 on, photo-
graphy receded into the background. Auerbach
died on July 30, 2004 in New York, after having

finally received recognition for her important pho-

tographic work.

NATHALIENeumann

Seealso:History of Photography: Interwar Years;

Peterhans, Walter; Photography in Europe: Ger-

many and Austria; Porter, Eliot

Biography

Born as Ellen Rosenberg on May 20, 1906 in Karlsruhe,

Germany, she died on July 30, 2004 in New York City.

Studied sculpture at the Karlsruher Kunstakademie

(1924–1927) and in Stuttgart (1928), later photography

with Walter Peterhans in Berlin (1929). 1930–1932

opened the advertising studio ‘‘foto ringl + pit’’ with

Grete Stern, which won first prize at the deuxie`me Expo-

sition Internationale de la Photographie et du Cine ́ma

(Brusseles) for its advertising photographKomolin 1933.

Emigrated in 1933 to Palestine, made a 16-mm movie

and opened ‘‘Ishon’’ photo studio. Official photogra-

pher for WIZO (Women’s International Zionist Organi-

zation); joined Stern in London (1936); married Walter

Auerbach (1937) and immigrated to the United States.

Worked at the Lessing Rosenwald Print Collection in

Philadelphia (1937–1944); Freelance photographer in

New York City (1945) working forTime magazine,

Columbia Masterworks. 1946, 1953, 1956 extensive trav-

els to Argentina, Greece, Majorca, Germany, and Aus-

tria. Worked with Sybille Escolana for the Menninger

Foundation, film:Mounting tension. Professor at Junior

College for Arts and Craft in Trenton (1953). Documen-

ted Mexico with Eliot Porter (1955–1956). Traveled

extensively, gaining a fascination for esotericism and

psychology. From 1965–1984 undertook educational

therapy for children at the Educational Institute for

Learning and Research in New York.

Individual Exhibitions

1978 Mexican Church Interiors, Sander Gallery, Washing-

ton, DC

1980 Images from Mexican Churches(Porter/Auerbach),

Cathedral St. John the Divine, New York, New York

1981 ringl + pit, Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin, Germany

1982 Ellen Auerbach: pictures after 1934, Photographers’

Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1998 Die Fotografin Ellen Auerbach, Retrospektive. Akade-

mie der Ku ̈nste, Berlin, Germany

2003 Ellen Auerbach, La Mirada intuitiva, Lleida: Fonda-

cion ‘‘la Caixa,’’ Foundation Centre Social i Cultural

(Blondel, 3), Spain

Group Exhibitions

1977 Ku ̈nstlerinnen International, Berlin 1877–1977; Schloss

Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany

1978 Das experimentelle Photo in Deutschland 1918–1940,

Galerie de Levante, Munich, Germany, and Centre

Pompidou, Paris, France

AUERBACH, ELLEN