Martin Munkácsi (1896–1963) - Untitled nude

c. 1955 — Photograph by Márton Munkácsi (Martin Munkácsi) (1896–1963), Hungarian-American photojournalist and art photographer, 1 modern print, unsigned.

Martin Munkácsi (1896–1963)
Born Márton Mermelstein on 18 May 1896 in Kolozsvár, Austria-Hungary (today Cluj-Napoca, Romania), he moved to Budapest as a teenager and worked as a journalist and sports reporter before turning to photography, largely self-taught, in the early 1920s at the newspaper Az Est (Wikipedia, Spanish Wikipedia, Howard Greenberg Gallery). From 1927 he worked in Berlin under a lucrative exclusive contract with Ullstein Verlag, producing reportage for Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, Die Dame, Uhu and Koralle in a freewheeling, kinetic style that captured the speed and movement of the modern era (Ullstein Bild, Artsy). As a Jewish foreigner he lost his position after the Nazi nationalisation of the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, and in 1934 he emigrated to New York, signing a contract reportedly worth $100,000 with Harper's Bazaar (Polish Wikipedia, Wikipedia). Discovered by editor Carmel Snow, he transformed fashion photography by taking it out of the studio: for the December 1933 Palm Beach bathing suit issue he had the model Lucille Brokaw run towards the camera — the first time a fashion model was photographed in motion — establishing the informality, natural light and vitality that earned him the nickname "the kinetic man" and made him a decisive influence on Henri Cartier-Bresson and Richard Avedon (Wikipedia, Howard Greenberg Gallery). He also produced one of the first articles in a popular magazine illustrated with nude photographs, and portrayed Katharine Hepburn, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Jane Russell, Leslie Howard, Louis Armstrong and Fred Astaire — the latter in what is regarded as the definitive dance photograph. His work also fed into the dummy prepared by Kurt Korff and Kurt Safranski that shaped the launch of LIFE magazine. He died in New York on 13 July 1963; his photographs are held by the Museum of Modern Art and the International Center of Photography in New York, the George Eastman House in Rochester and SFMOMA.