YVA - Portrait Hajek-Halke

The auction features a very rare original photogravure produced using the intaglio printing process by the German photographer YVA (Else Ernestine Neuländer-Simon).

The offered photogravure in intaglio comes from a consolidated lot of a photo book from 1927 – Das Deutsche Lichtbild – which is no longer complete and cannot be restored due to its condition. The selection of photographs offered (there are other photographs from this context currently on offer) is very rare and a rare opportunity to acquire original photography from a limited edition in very high quality as an intaglio print. They come from a private personal collection.

Because of some substantial edge defects, the photo pages were uniformly trimmed and mounted on acid-free photo board (DIN A3). The photographs are in excellent and collectible condition. They will be shipped without a frame in professional packaging.

In particular, this first volume of the series was a worldwide success and was sent to many countries in Europe and beyond (including an English supplement) and served as an inspiration for the genre of photo books.

The first volume is extremely rare. It appeared as a anniversary edition of the Bruno Schultz Verlag in a unique intaglio printing edition of the photographs. The first edition sold out so quickly that the publisher began buying copies back.

The first series appeared until 1938. From 1934 the selection of photographs changed radically after Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, who opened the 34er edition with a foreword of its own (“In eigner Sache”). Until 1933, Das Deutsche LICHTBILD stood out for a significant selection of contemporary female and male photographers who are today counted among the important protagonists of early Modern Photography:

Among others: Yva, Franz Grainer, Nini and Carry Hess, Arthur Benda, Erich Angenendt, Charlotte Rudolph, Hajek-Halke (1928), Käthe Hecht (1928), Albert Renger-Patzsch, Hans Windisch, Max Baur (1930), Hannes Maria Flach (1930), as well as texts (and partly photographs) by László Moholy-Nagy (1927), Franz Werfel, Raoul Hausmann, Kurt Tucholsky (as Peter Panther, 1930) and other authors.

About the person: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yva

Yva, actually Else Ernestine Neuländer-Simon, (born January 26, 1900 in Berlin as Else Ernestine Neuländer; died 1942 in the Sobibor extermination camp) was a German photographer specializing in nude, portrait, and fashion photography.

Life and Work

Yva was the youngest of nine siblings and was born in the parental apartment at Großbeerenstraße 36 in the Tempelhofer Vorstadt. Her parents were the merchants Siegfried Neuländer and Jenny Neuländer, born Koch. At the age of 25 she opened her first photo studio at Berliner Friedrich-Wilhelm-Straße 17. By autumn 1930 the studio was at Bleibtreustraße 17, then from spring 1934 at Schlüterstraße 45, until it was closed in 1938 due to a work ban.
Max Liebermann, from the series Prominente von hinten, 1920s

Yva was a sought-after fashion photographer and published in reputable newspapers and magazines such as Die Dame, Uhu, Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, Münchner Illustrierte Presse, and Das Deutsche Lichtbild. She also photographed prominent figures in public life. At the peak of her career she employed up to ten staff.

In 1926 Yva briefly worked with photographer Heinz Hajek-Halke. From 1929 she worked for Ullstein Verlag. After the Nazis seized power in 1933 she was forbidden to work because of her Jewish origin. Through collaboration with the Schostal Agency she was able to circumvent this for a time. In 1934 she married Alfred Simon, who took over the commercial management of the studio. She entrusted the official management of the studio in 1936 to her “Aryan” friend, art historian Charlotte Weidler. In the same year Helmut Neustädter began his training here, who would later become the famous photographer Helmut Newton.

In 1938 Yva had to give up the studio and living spaces due to the professional ban. She subsequently worked as a radiology assistant at the Jewish Hospital Berlin. However, publications mentioning her name in 1939 are still verifiable (e.g., fashion photographs by Karin Stilke, around 1936).

In 1942 Yva and her husband were arrested and on June 2, 1942, deported with the 14th East Transport via Lublin probably to Sobibor extermination camp, after they had prepared to emigrate. In Sobibor she was probably murdered shortly after the transport arrived on June 15, 1942; the court death declaration fixed her date of death as December 31, 1944.

Stolperstein in front of the house, Schlüterstraße 45, in Berlin-Charlottenburg.
Yva’s photographs are among others in the Berlinische Galerie. [5]

About Das Deutsche Lichtbild: (SOURCE; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Deutsche_Lichtbild)

In 1927 the photographer Hans Windisch founded the yearbook Das Deutsche Lichtbild at Bruno Schultz Verlag in Berlin. It was intended to contain the most important photographs of the year and some text contributions. The graphic designer László Moholy-Nagy created the title insignia. Reichskunstwart Edwin Redslob praised the first issue enthusiastically.

In 1930 the issue stated:
“Das Deutsche Lichtbild brings annually from all photographic fields the 100 strongest images of the year by German professionals and amateur photographers in unparalleled reproductions and in an ideal book design. It has been described by judgments cited here as the best Lichtbild yearbook on earth.”