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German photographer Ilsa Bing (1899-1998) moved to Paris in the late 20s, at a time when that city was the center of artistic ferment. At the same time, she got the new Leica 35mm roll-film camera, which, with its light weight and ability to take 36 shots per roll, enabled photographers to experiment in ways they hadn’t been able to with more cumbersome view cameras and sheet film.
Making maximum use of this tool, Bing acquired the title “Queen of the Leica” for her groundbreaking work, which gave her a reputation as an avant-garde artist as well as steady work as a magazine photographer. Bing, who was Jewish, left Paris in 1941 and moved to New York, where she never found the same success she had in Paris. Sadly, many of her original prints were lost due to the move. By the late 50s she had given up photography in favor of writing, drawing and collage-making.
Ilsa Bing: Queen of the Leica, which opens this week at the Cleveland Museum of Art, features 50 photos from throughout her career, most of them recently acquired by the museum and on view here for the first time.
clevelandart/ilse-bing-queen-leica
Cleveland, OH 44106