Born Dora Kallamus in 1881 into a privileged Jewish family from Vienna. She purchased her first camera at the age of 23 on a trip in the South of France, later becoming one of Europe's leading photographic portraitists of the 20th Century.  She was a true pioneer in that she was the first woman to open up a photography studio in Vienna, a field dominated by men.  The lecture charts her entire career.  We will view her early portraits of Viennese high society followed by capturing the Golden 20s in Paris and then the Post War years.  After WW2 Dora turned her lens towards people in displaced person camps and then she worked on another haunting series which included the Parisienne slaughterhouses. This lecture demonstrates her exceptional ability to capture both the essence of beauty and the pathos of death and suffering.

 

Dora Kallamus was a famous photographer that lived during both World Wars. Before WW2 her studio practiced exuded of elegance and haute couture, after the war she shifted her focus to the ills of society.