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{{Short description|Austro-Dutch photographer}}
{{Short description|Austro-Dutch photographer}}
⚫
'''Maria Austria''' (née '''Marie Karoline Oeststreicher'''; 19 March 1915 in [[Karlovy Vary]] – 10 January 1975 in [[Amsterdam]]) was an Austro-Dutch photographer who is considered an important post-war photographer of the Netherlands, and was a theatre and [[Documentary photography|documentary]] photographer. Her [[Neorealism (art)|neorealistic]] photo reportage was exhibited at the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in 1953, the [[Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam]] in 1958, the [[Van Gogh Museum]] in 1975, and the [[Joods Historisch Museum]] in 2001.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Frijns |first1=Martien |title=Maria Austria, fotografe |date=January 2018 |publisher=AFdH Uitgevers |location=Enschede |isbn=978-9072603890 |edition=Eerste druk}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Grenzen überschreiten : Frauen, Kunst und Exil |date=2005 |publisher=Königshausen & Neumann |location=Würzburg |isbn=978-3826031472 |pages=29–33}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Holland zonder haast 4 |date=2001 |publisher=Voetnoot |location=Amsterdam |isbn=978-9071877544 |edition=1e dr}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Korotin |first1=Ilse |title=biografiA. Lexikon österreichischer Frauen, Band 3. |date=June 2016 |location=Wien |isbn=978-3205795902 |page=163}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=van der Stap |first1=Carla |title=Maria Austria |journal=Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse Fotografie in monografieen en thema-artikelen |date=September 1987 |volume=4 |issue=7 |url=https://depthoffield.universiteitleiden.nl/0407f01en/ |access-date=18 June 2022 |location=Amsterdam |language=nl}}</ref>
{{Expand German|Maria Austria|date=June 2022}}


== Life ==
⚫
'''Maria Austria''' (née '''Marie Karoline Oeststreicher'''; 19 March 1915 in [[Karlovy Vary]] – 10 January 1975 in [[Amsterdam]]) was an Austro-Dutch photographer, best remembered for her [[post-World War II]] [[documentary photography]] of [[The Netherlands]]. Her [[Neorealism (art)|neorealistic]] photo reports were exhibited at the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in 1953, the [[Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam]] in 1958, the [[Van Gogh Museum]] in 1975, and the [[Joods Historisch Museum]] in 2001.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Frijns |first1=Martien |title=Maria Austria, fotografe |date=January 2018 |publisher=AFdH Uitgevers |location=Enschede |isbn=978-9072603890 |edition=Eerste druk}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Grenzen überschreiten : Frauen, Kunst und Exil |date=2005 |publisher=Königshausen & Neumann |location=Würzburg |isbn=978-3826031472 |pages=29–33}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Holland zonder haast 4 |date=2001 |publisher=Voetnoot |location=Amsterdam |isbn=978-9071877544 |edition=1e dr}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Korotin |first1=Ilse |title=biografiA. Lexikon österreichischer Frauen, Band 3. |date=June 2016 |location=Wien |isbn=978-3205795902 |page=163}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=van der Stap |first1=Carla |title=Maria Austria |journal=Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse Fotografie in monografieen en thema-artikelen |date=September 1987 |volume=4 |issue=7 |url=https://depthoffield.universiteitleiden.nl/0407f01en/ |access-date=18 June 2022 |location=Amsterdam |language=nl}}</ref>
=== 1915 to 1936 ===
Marie Karoline Oestreicher grew up in what was then the [[Bohemia|Bohemian]] monarchy Karlsbad, the daughter of Austrian doctor Karl, who died young (1864 – March 1915) and his wife Clara, née Kisch (1871–1945), sibling of the older Felix (1894–1945) and Lisbeth (1902–1989)The [[Judaism|Jewish]] family was middle-class in an intellectual and artistic environment.<ref name="Nicolaisen" /> She had Austrian citizenship until 1918, and then Czechoslovakian citizenship.<ref name="Woordenboek"/> From 1928 to June 1933 she attended the local girls' high school, from which she graduated with very good grades.


During this time she began taking photographs. From the summer of 1933 she lived in the Rathausstrasse, Vienna. She bought a [[Leica Camera|Leica]] and a [[Rolleiflex]] and began a three-year apprenticeship as a photographer on September 18 the [[Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt|Graphic Teaching and Research Institute Vienna]] - Department of Photography and Reproduction Processes, including an internship from February 1934 to July 1935 in the Viennese Willinger's photo studio on [[Kärntner Straße|Kärntnerstrasse]]. After graduating with "very good" on July 4, 1936, she worked as a freelance photographer. She was interested in culture, attended avant-garde theatre productions and small experimental theatres and found inspiration in the circles of left-wing artists and actors around the [[Naschmarkt]].<ref name="dasverborgenemuseum" /><ref name="Nees" />

=== 1937 to 1945 ===
In the summer of 1937 she left Austria because of the increasing influence of the [[Nazi Germany]] and the growing [[Antisemitism|anti-Semitism]] and moved to the Netherlands to live with her sister Lisbeth, who, after training as a textile designer at the [[Bauhaus Dessau]] had settled in Amsterdam. Accustomed to demand for her work in Vienna, Maria first had to develop a reputation in Amsterdam. She learned Dutch, took any small job, and from the beginning of 1938 photographed her sister's designs in their joint studio "Model en Foto Austria" (Fashion and Photo Studio Austria), and carried out advertising and portrait commissions. She developed her negatives herself, produced reportage and slowly established business with magazines.<ref name="Ruthe"/> She published in the magazines ''[[Libelle (Dutch magazine)|Libelle]]'' and ''Wij'' and made contacts with politically and culturally like-minded people in the ''Nederlandsche Film League''.

During this time she met the directors [[Joris Ivens]] and [[John Fernhout]] and the Hungarian photographer [[Eva Besnyö|Éva Besnyö]].<ref name="Holzer" /> With the move to the Noorder Amstellaan in the [[Rivierenbuurt]] district in 1939 she only used nom-de-plume 'Maria Austria.'<ref name="Nicolaisen" /><ref name="dasverborgenemuseum" />
After the [[German invasion of the Netherlands|invasion of the Netherlands]] on May 10, 1940 and the occupation by the German [[Wehrmacht]], the living conditions for Jewish people became increasingly difficult due to the growing reprisals during the [[Reichskommissariat Niederlande|German occupation]] such as compulsory registration for Jews, exclusion from public life, exclusion from associations, professional and writing bans. As she was affected by the occupational ban for Jewish photographers, Austria had to give up her job in May 1941 and began working as a nurse in the Portuguese-Israelite Hospital<ref name="biografiA" /> on the Rapenburg peninsula in the [[Jodenbuurt]] and as a photography teacher for the [[Judenrat]] of Amsterdam.<ref name="flyer" /> In April 1942 entered a [[marriage of convenience]] with the German-Jewish merchant Hans Bial (1911–2000) that ended in divorce in December 1945. [[File:Vondelstraat 110, Amsterdam 2.jpg|thumb|portrait|Vondelstraat 110, Amsterdam]]
Her sister Lisbeth was interned in [[Westerbork transit camp|Westerbork Camp]] in 1942, as was her mother and brother and family in 1943, who had fled to the Netherlands in 1938. Maria Austria went into hiding, changing accommodation from mid-1943 and began to work for the [[Dutch resistance|Dutch Resistance]].

During this time, while hiding in the attic of the house at Vondelstraat 110 in Amsterdam, she met her future husband Hendrik (“Henk”) Pieter Jonker, whom she taught to take photographs. Jonker worked as an official for the Amsterdam population register.

Together with him and other Jewish photographers such as Éva Besnyö, they produced false identity cards for the resistance and Maria took on courier services under the pseudonym Elizabeth Huijnen.<ref name="Woordenboek" /><ref name="Nees" /> Her mother was sent in April 1945 to the [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp|KZ Bergen-Belsen]], her brother Felix and his wife died shortly afterwards as a result of imprisonment in Belsen. Lisbeth survived in Westerbork and took in the three orphaned nieces Beate, Helly and Maria, whom she looked after with Maria Austria.<ref name="Nicolaisen" /><ref name="dasverborgenemuseum" /><ref name="Helly" />

=== From 1945 ===
[[File:Willemsparkweg 120, Amsterdam 2.jpg|thumb|upright|Willemsparkweg 120,Amsterdam]]
After the war she accepted commissions for fashion reports and founded Rupe together with Henk Jonker, Aart Klein and Wim Zilver in 1945 after the [[German surrender at Lüneburg Heath|surrender of the German Wehrmacht]] on May 4, 1945 on Willemsparkweg 120


the photo agency Particam (Partizanen Camera).<ref name="Nees" /><ref name="MAI" /> The Canadian Allies delivered initially the photographers film material for the documentation of life in the destroyed cities.<ref name="Ruthe" /> With the permission of the National Armed Forces, socially critical photo stories on the reconstruction and misery amongst the population were produced for the Dutch free press.<ref name="flyer" /> From 1949 to the early 1960s, Maria Austria and Jonker were given a page on the back of the ''Algemeen Handelsblad'' with a photo section on changing social themes.<ref name="Woordenboek" />

The couple also photographed people from the performing arts in the Netherlands for program booklets and theatre showcases.They were invited to document the first performances in the [[Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam]]. From 1947, the [[Holland Festival]] in Amsterdam became an important client. They also photographed performances in [[De Nationale Opera]] from 1949, the Dutch Opera Foundation (De Nederlandse Operastichting)) and orchestras, such as the [[Concertgebouw Orchestra|Concertgebouw]] from 1951.

In March 1950, Maria Austria married Henk Jonker and was naturalized as Dutch.<ref name="dasverborgenemuseum" /> Increasingly she concentrated on reporting on theater performances and experimental music and dance performances, opera and ballet productions. After Wim Zilver Rupe and Aart Klein left in 1956 and Henk Jonker divorced in 1963, she continued to run the Particam office on her own, employing assistants and apprentices, etc. Vincent Mentzel, Jaap Pieper and Bob van Dantzig.<ref name="MAI" /> The marriage to Henk Jonker was dissolved on October 28, 1969.
Until her death in 1975, she was the in-house photographer at the Mickery Theater, which had been based in Amsterdam since 1972, a venue for international, alternative [[experimental theater]] and one of the most important stages for free ensembles in Europe.<ref name="Lenz" /> For the Holland Festival and Mickery Theater, she photographed the receptions and rehearsals during the day, the performances or concerts in the evening and then developed the photos in order to deliver them to the national newspapers and agencies in the morning before going to press. The photos of the high-profile performances brought her national fame.<ref name="Woordenboek" />

Among other things, Maria Austria was a member of the "Nederlandse Vereniging van Photojournalists"(Association of Dutch Photojournalists) and from 1945 until her death was member of the board of the photography department of the Vereniging van Beoefenaars der Gebonden Kunsten(later named Gebonden Kunstenaars federatie : Association for Applied Arts) In this capacity, she campaigned for the recognition of photography as a legitimate art discipline and lobbied the Ministry of Education, Art and Science for a separate fund in the state budget for the purchase and exhibition of photographs in museums.<ref name="Woordenboek" /><ref name="Ruthe" /> She insisted on attribution when publishing her photos in magazines and forbade the cropping of her pictures.<ref name="Helly" />

Maria Austria died on January 10, 1975 in Amsterdam after a bad flu.<ref name="dasverborgenemuseum" />
In 1976 the ''Stichting Fotoarchief Maria Austria-Particam'' (Foundation PhotoArchive Maria Austria-Particam) was set up to make her legacy accessible and at the same time to set up an archive for Dutch photographers (since 1992 new foundation ''Maria Austria Institute' ' (MAY)).''
The archive is now housed in the ''Stadsarchief Amsterdam'' and contains over 50 archives of important photographers, including the estates of Maria Austria, Particam, Hans Dukkers, Henk Jonker, [[Carel Blazer]].<nowiki><ref name="dasverborgenemuseum" / ></nowiki><ref name="Helly" />

The Amsterdam Fund for the Arts awards the ''Maria Austria Prize for Photography'' every two years.<ref name="dasverborgenemuseum" />

== Style ==
Maria Austria's style of photography is [[Neorealism (art)|Neorealist]]. Uninfluenced by avant-garde trends, she renounced artistic alienation and created "straight photographs that capture the social contradictions of the post-war period".<ref name="Nees" /> She was known for her perfectionism and craftsmanship. Her pictures “are razor-sharp and characterized by strong contrasts. You can see every little wrinkle. She seems to capture the people and the events directly."

From 1937 she took the fashion photos in the Amsterdam studio exclusively with a Rolleiflex. She justified her preference with the fact that "even with the Rolleiflex you are much more mobile than with a large box".<ref name="Holzer" /> She used a Rolleiflex camera until the 1970s, for which she had a cover made in order to be able to take pictures as quietly as possible during theater and dance performances. She often worked with a tripod and her own lighting and, working from experience, even in difficult lighting situations without a [[photometer]]. Only shortly before her death did she take pictures with a [[3mm camera]].<ref name="Woordenboek" /><ref name="van der Stap" />

Even in her pictures from the training period in Vienna, Maria Austria's leaning toward social reporting is evident. She photographed workers playing cards in Vienna, girls at the lake, glassblowers in Bohemia and their everyday lives. As a freelance photographer in Vienna, she photographed celebrities from the international art scene, such as [[Benjamin Britten]], [[Maria Callas]], [[Josephine Baker]], [[Martha Graham]] and also [[Albert Schweitzer]] .<ref name="Ruthe" /> After she went into hiding in Amsterdam in 1943, she secretly photographed German troops in the streets from her hiding place in the Vondelstraat from the attic window.<ref name="Lenz" />

For her photo agency Particam (Partizanen Camera), founded in 1945, she made socially critical photo-reportage, such as on the [[Dutch famine of 1944–1945|Hongerwinter]] 1944/45, the return of Jewish inmates from the Westerbork camp in 1945, the arrest of Dutch [[collaborators]], on the children's camp for Jewish Romanian orphans Ilaniah in [[Apeldoorn]] in 1948 and of the "Asocial camp" in [[Drenthe]], in which the Dutch government housed socially disadvantaged families and forced them to do hard labor for the purpose of "resocialization" until 1950. She documented the destruction of the [[Amsterdam Centraal station|Amsterdam Centraal Station]], the misery after the war, the reconstruction and life in the liberated Netherlands, as well as the [[North Sea flood of 1953|flood disaster of 1953]].<ref name="Nees" /><ref name="MAI" />

In December 1954, she and Jonker, through [[Otto Frank]] and mediated by the theater director Rob de Vries, were commissioned to document the hiding place of [[Anne Frank]] and her family at [[Prinsengracht]] 263. Jonker photographed the front of the building and Maria Austria took over 250 shots of the rear of ''Het Achterhuis''. The photo documentation was the basis for the construction of the scenery for the theatre production on Broadway in 1955 and the 1959 film adaptation ''[[The Diary of Anne Frank (1959 film)|The Diary of Anne Frank]]''. In 1958 her photos were shown in a solo exhibition at the [[Stedelijk Museum]] in Amsterdam.<ref name="dasverborgenemuseum" />

In addition to social reports, in the years after the war she took many portrait photos of intellectuals and artists of her time,<ref name="Lenz" /> including [[Bertolt Brecht]], [[Thomas Mann]], [[Igor Stravinsky]], [[Mstislav Rostropovich]], [[James Baldwin]]. Increasingly she devoted herself to theatre, music, dance and circus photography, concentrating on reporting on theatrical performances and experimental music and dance performances, photographing many opera and ballet productions, famous guest conductors and soloists, most notably at the [[Holland Festival]] in Amsterdam and as in-house photographer of the experimental Mickery Theater.<ref name="dasverborgenemuseum" /><ref name="MAI" /> She photographed the guest performances of the post-war [[avant-garde]] of the stage world, such as the troupe of ''La MaMa Experimental Theater Club'' from New York and the performances of the ''Tenjo Sajiki Theater'' founded by [[Shūji Terayama|Shÿji Terayama]]. She photographed the actors candidly during their performance, resulting in expressive and sometimes blurry images that convey a dynamic and haunting impression. Her strictly composed [[black and white photography]]s were characterized by their combination of precision and expressiveness<ref name="Nees" /> that captured the emotions staged on stage.<ref name="flyer" />

Maria Austria was also interested in the socio-political theatre that was formed in the Netherlands in the early 1970s. She photographed the performances of the theatre collective ''Het Werkteater'' founded in 1970 and the theatre groups ''Prolog'', ''Baal'' and ''Sater'', in which she was also personally involved. She was also fascinated by expressive, existential, new forms of expression in dance.<ref name="Ruthe" /> She tried to reflect the beauty and perfection she saw in the performances of Kurt Stuyf and Ellen Edinoff from the '' Contemporary Dance Foundation''.<ref name="Woordenboek" />
== Exhibitions (selection) ==
* 1953: ''Post-war European Photography''. [[Museum of Modern Art]], New York
* 1958: ''Maria Austria Exhibition''. [[Stedelijk Museum]], Amsterdam (solo exhibition)
* 1975: ''In memory of Maria Austria - theatre photography''. [[Van Gogh Museum]], Amsterdam
* 1977: the ''Maria Austria exhibition'' in the Stedelijk Museum is taken overto Amstelveen, Hilversum and Arnhem.
* 1977: ''Theatre photos of Maria Austria''. Schouwburg Gallery, [[Tilburg]]
* 1991: ''Model in Photo Austria''. Dutch Textile Museum (Nederlands Textielmuseum), Tilburg
* 2001: ''Maria Austria - Holland zoned Haast''. [[Joods Historical Museum]], Amsterdam
* 2002: ''Maria Austria - Photographs from the 1950s and 1960s''. [[The Hidden Museum]], Berlin
* 2018: ''Maria Austria - Photographer''. [[Joods Historical Museum]], Amsterdam; The Hidden Museum, Berlin
* 2018/2019: ''Maria Austria - An Amsterdam Photographer of Neorealism''. The Hidden Museum, Berlin. Selection with about one hundred black and white Photographs and documents from the exhibition at the [[Joods Historisch Museum]], Amsterdam
== Literature (selection) ==
* Martien Frijns: ''Maria Austria. photographer''. Exhibition catalogue, Verlag AFdH, Enschede 2018, ISBN 978-9072603890
* ''biography: Encyclopedia of Austrian Women'', Volume 1. Ilse Korotin (ed.), Böhlau, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3205795902, p.[https://books.google.de/books?id=O5pVDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA163&dq=%22Maria+Austria%22&hl=de&sa=X&ved =0ahUKEwic3-DukbvpAhXpsaQKHd7LBAkQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=%22Maria%20Austria%22&f=false 163]
* ''Holland zone haast 4. Photo's by Maria Austria''. Judith Herzberg (ed.), Maria Austria Institute, Verlag Voetnoot, Amsterdam 2001, ISBN 978-9071877544
* Kees Nieuwenhuijzen (ea): ''Maria Austria. Photos''. Verlag De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam 1976, ISBN 90-234-5226-7
* Dörte Nicolaisen: ''Bauhäusler in exile in the Netherlands''. In: ''Crossing borders: women, art and exile''. Ursula Hudson-Wiedenmann, Beate Schmeichel-Falkenberg (eds.), Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 978-3826031472, p.[https://books.google.de/books?id=efR2Lhzk6jAC&pg=PA32&dq=%22Maria+Austria%22&hl=de&sa=X&ved=0a hUKEwic3-DukbvpAhXpsaQKHd7LBAkQ6AEIQzAD#v=onepage&q=%22Maria%20Austria%22&f=false 29-33]''
* [http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/bwn1880-2000/lemmata/bwn5/oestreicher ''Oestreicher, Marie Karoline (1915-1975)''.] In: [[Biographical Woordenboek van Nederland]]. Volume 5, The Hague 2002
== Web Links ==
* {{DNB portal|124685021|NAME=Maria Austria}}
* [http://www.maibeeldbank.nl/beeldbank?f_creator%5B0%5D=Austria%2C+Maria+ photographs] by Maria Austria on the Maria Austria Institute website
== References ==
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}
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[[Category:Dutch women photographers]]
[[Category:Dutch women photographers]]
[[Category:Dutch women journalists]]
[[Category:Dutch women journalists]]
[[Category:Photographer (20th Century)]] [[Category:Photographer (Netherlands)]]

[[Category:Person (Dutch Resistance 1940–1945)]] [[Category:Holocaust survivor]]
{{Photographer-stub}}
[[Category:Pseudonym]]
[[Category:Austrian emigrant at the time of National Socialism]] [[Category:Person (Cisleithania)]]
[[Category:Austrian]]
[[Category:Dutch]]
[[Category:Born 1915]] [[Category:Died 1975]] [[Category:Woman]]

Revision as of 05:32, 26 July 2022

Maria Austria (née Marie Karoline Oeststreicher; 19 March 1915 in Karlovy Vary – 10 January 1975 in Amsterdam) was an Austro-Dutch photographer who is considered an important post-war photographer of the Netherlands, and was a theatre and documentary photographer. Her neorealistic photo reportage was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in 1953, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1958, the Van Gogh Museum in 1975, and the Joods Historisch Museum in 2001.[1][2][3][4][5]

Life

1915 to 1936

Marie Karoline Oestreicher grew up in what was then the Bohemian monarchy Karlsbad, the daughter of Austrian doctor Karl, who died young (1864 – March 1915) and his wife Clara, née Kisch (1871–1945), sibling of the older Felix (1894–1945) and Lisbeth (1902–1989)The Jewish family was middle-class in an intellectual and artistic environment.[6] She had Austrian citizenship until 1918, and then Czechoslovakian citizenship.[7] From 1928 to June 1933 she attended the local girls' high school, from which she graduated with very good grades.

During this time she began taking photographs. From the summer of 1933 she lived in the Rathausstrasse, Vienna. She bought a Leica and a Rolleiflex and began a three-year apprenticeship as a photographer on September 18 the Graphic Teaching and Research Institute Vienna - Department of Photography and Reproduction Processes, including an internship from February 1934 to July 1935 in the Viennese Willinger's photo studio on Kärntnerstrasse. After graduating with "very good" on July 4, 1936, she worked as a freelance photographer. She was interested in culture, attended avant-garde theatre productions and small experimental theatres and found inspiration in the circles of left-wing artists and actors around the Naschmarkt.[8][9]

1937 to 1945

In the summer of 1937 she left Austria because of the increasing influence of the Nazi Germany and the growing anti-Semitism and moved to the Netherlands to live with her sister Lisbeth, who, after training as a textile designer at the Bauhaus Dessau had settled in Amsterdam. Accustomed to demand for her work in Vienna, Maria first had to develop a reputation in Amsterdam. She learned Dutch, took any small job, and from the beginning of 1938 photographed her sister's designs in their joint studio "Model en Foto Austria" (Fashion and Photo Studio Austria), and carried out advertising and portrait commissions. She developed her negatives herself, produced reportage and slowly established business with magazines.[10] She published in the magazines Libelle and Wij and made contacts with politically and culturally like-minded people in the Nederlandsche Film League.

During this time she met the directors Joris Ivens and John Fernhout and the Hungarian photographer Éva Besnyö.[11] With the move to the Noorder Amstellaan in the Rivierenbuurt district in 1939 she only used nom-de-plume 'Maria Austria.'[6][8]

After the invasion of the Netherlands on May 10, 1940 and the occupation by the German Wehrmacht, the living conditions for Jewish people became increasingly difficult due to the growing reprisals during the German occupation such as compulsory registration for Jews, exclusion from public life, exclusion from associations, professional and writing bans. As she was affected by the occupational ban for Jewish photographers, Austria had to give up her job in May 1941 and began working as a nurse in the Portuguese-Israelite Hospital[12] on the Rapenburg peninsula in the Jodenbuurt and as a photography teacher for the Judenrat of Amsterdam.[13] In April 1942 entered a marriage of convenience with the German-Jewish merchant Hans Bial (1911–2000) that ended in divorce in December 1945.

Vondelstraat 110, Amsterdam

Her sister Lisbeth was interned in Westerbork Camp in 1942, as was her mother and brother and family in 1943, who had fled to the Netherlands in 1938. Maria Austria went into hiding, changing accommodation from mid-1943 and began to work for the Dutch Resistance.

During this time, while hiding in the attic of the house at Vondelstraat 110 in Amsterdam, she met her future husband Hendrik (“Henk”) Pieter Jonker, whom she taught to take photographs. Jonker worked as an official for the Amsterdam population register.

Together with him and other Jewish photographers such as Éva Besnyö, they produced false identity cards for the resistance and Maria took on courier services under the pseudonym Elizabeth Huijnen.[7][9] Her mother was sent in April 1945 to the KZ Bergen-Belsen, her brother Felix and his wife died shortly afterwards as a result of imprisonment in Belsen. Lisbeth survived in Westerbork and took in the three orphaned nieces Beate, Helly and Maria, whom she looked after with Maria Austria.[6][8][14]

From 1945

Willemsparkweg 120,Amsterdam

After the war she accepted commissions for fashion reports and founded Rupe together with Henk Jonker, Aart Klein and Wim Zilver in 1945 after the surrender of the German Wehrmacht on May 4, 1945 on Willemsparkweg 120


the photo agency Particam (Partizanen Camera).[9][15] The Canadian Allies delivered initially the photographers film material for the documentation of life in the destroyed cities.[10] With the permission of the National Armed Forces, socially critical photo stories on the reconstruction and misery amongst the population were produced for the Dutch free press.[13] From 1949 to the early 1960s, Maria Austria and Jonker were given a page on the back of the Algemeen Handelsblad with a photo section on changing social themes.[7]

The couple also photographed people from the performing arts in the Netherlands for program booklets and theatre showcases.They were invited to document the first performances in the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam. From 1947, the Holland Festival in Amsterdam became an important client. They also photographed performances in De Nationale Opera from 1949, the Dutch Opera Foundation (De Nederlandse Operastichting)) and orchestras, such as the Concertgebouw from 1951.

In March 1950, Maria Austria married Henk Jonker and was naturalized as Dutch.[8] Increasingly she concentrated on reporting on theater performances and experimental music and dance performances, opera and ballet productions. After Wim Zilver Rupe and Aart Klein left in 1956 and Henk Jonker divorced in 1963, she continued to run the Particam office on her own, employing assistants and apprentices, etc. Vincent Mentzel, Jaap Pieper and Bob van Dantzig.[15] The marriage to Henk Jonker was dissolved on October 28, 1969. Until her death in 1975, she was the in-house photographer at the Mickery Theater, which had been based in Amsterdam since 1972, a venue for international, alternative experimental theater and one of the most important stages for free ensembles in Europe.[16] For the Holland Festival and Mickery Theater, she photographed the receptions and rehearsals during the day, the performances or concerts in the evening and then developed the photos in order to deliver them to the national newspapers and agencies in the morning before going to press. The photos of the high-profile performances brought her national fame.[7]

Among other things, Maria Austria was a member of the "Nederlandse Vereniging van Photojournalists"(Association of Dutch Photojournalists) and from 1945 until her death was member of the board of the photography department of the Vereniging van Beoefenaars der Gebonden Kunsten(later named Gebonden Kunstenaars federatie : Association for Applied Arts) In this capacity, she campaigned for the recognition of photography as a legitimate art discipline and lobbied the Ministry of Education, Art and Science for a separate fund in the state budget for the purchase and exhibition of photographs in museums.[7][10] She insisted on attribution when publishing her photos in magazines and forbade the cropping of her pictures.[14]

Maria Austria died on January 10, 1975 in Amsterdam after a bad flu.[8] In 1976 the Stichting Fotoarchief Maria Austria-Particam (Foundation PhotoArchive Maria Austria-Particam) was set up to make her legacy accessible and at the same time to set up an archive for Dutch photographers (since 1992 new foundation Maria Austria Institute' ' (MAY)). The archive is now housed in the Stadsarchief Amsterdam and contains over 50 archives of important photographers, including the estates of Maria Austria, Particam, Hans Dukkers, Henk Jonker, Carel Blazer.<ref name="dasverborgenemuseum" / >[14]

The Amsterdam Fund for the Arts awards the Maria Austria Prize for Photography every two years.[8]

Style

Maria Austria's style of photography is Neorealist. Uninfluenced by avant-garde trends, she renounced artistic alienation and created "straight photographs that capture the social contradictions of the post-war period".[9] She was known for her perfectionism and craftsmanship. Her pictures “are razor-sharp and characterized by strong contrasts. You can see every little wrinkle. She seems to capture the people and the events directly."

From 1937 she took the fashion photos in the Amsterdam studio exclusively with a Rolleiflex. She justified her preference with the fact that "even with the Rolleiflex you are much more mobile than with a large box".[11] She used a Rolleiflex camera until the 1970s, for which she had a cover made in order to be able to take pictures as quietly as possible during theater and dance performances. She often worked with a tripod and her own lighting and, working from experience, even in difficult lighting situations without a photometer. Only shortly before her death did she take pictures with a 3mm camera.[7][17]

Even in her pictures from the training period in Vienna, Maria Austria's leaning toward social reporting is evident. She photographed workers playing cards in Vienna, girls at the lake, glassblowers in Bohemia and their everyday lives. As a freelance photographer in Vienna, she photographed celebrities from the international art scene, such as Benjamin Britten, Maria Callas, Josephine Baker, Martha Graham and also Albert Schweitzer .[10] After she went into hiding in Amsterdam in 1943, she secretly photographed German troops in the streets from her hiding place in the Vondelstraat from the attic window.[16]

For her photo agency Particam (Partizanen Camera), founded in 1945, she made socially critical photo-reportage, such as on the Hongerwinter 1944/45, the return of Jewish inmates from the Westerbork camp in 1945, the arrest of Dutch collaborators, on the children's camp for Jewish Romanian orphans Ilaniah in Apeldoorn in 1948 and of the "Asocial camp" in Drenthe, in which the Dutch government housed socially disadvantaged families and forced them to do hard labor for the purpose of "resocialization" until 1950. She documented the destruction of the Amsterdam Centraal Station, the misery after the war, the reconstruction and life in the liberated Netherlands, as well as the flood disaster of 1953.[9][15]

In December 1954, she and Jonker, through Otto Frank and mediated by the theater director Rob de Vries, were commissioned to document the hiding place of Anne Frank and her family at Prinsengracht 263. Jonker photographed the front of the building and Maria Austria took over 250 shots of the rear of Het Achterhuis. The photo documentation was the basis for the construction of the scenery for the theatre production on Broadway in 1955 and the 1959 film adaptation The Diary of Anne Frank. In 1958 her photos were shown in a solo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.[8]

In addition to social reports, in the years after the war she took many portrait photos of intellectuals and artists of her time,[16] including Bertolt Brecht, Thomas Mann, Igor Stravinsky, Mstislav Rostropovich, James Baldwin. Increasingly she devoted herself to theatre, music, dance and circus photography, concentrating on reporting on theatrical performances and experimental music and dance performances, photographing many opera and ballet productions, famous guest conductors and soloists, most notably at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam and as in-house photographer of the experimental Mickery Theater.[8][15] She photographed the guest performances of the post-war avant-garde of the stage world, such as the troupe of La MaMa Experimental Theater Club from New York and the performances of the Tenjo Sajiki Theater founded by Shÿji Terayama. She photographed the actors candidly during their performance, resulting in expressive and sometimes blurry images that convey a dynamic and haunting impression. Her strictly composed black and white photographys were characterized by their combination of precision and expressiveness[9] that captured the emotions staged on stage.[13]

Maria Austria was also interested in the socio-political theatre that was formed in the Netherlands in the early 1970s. She photographed the performances of the theatre collective Het Werkteater founded in 1970 and the theatre groups Prolog, Baal and Sater, in which she was also personally involved. She was also fascinated by expressive, existential, new forms of expression in dance.[10] She tried to reflect the beauty and perfection she saw in the performances of Kurt Stuyf and Ellen Edinoff from the Contemporary Dance Foundation.[7]

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1953: Post-war European Photography. Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • 1958: Maria Austria Exhibition. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (solo exhibition)
  • 1975: In memory of Maria Austria - theatre photography. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
  • 1977: the Maria Austria exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum is taken overto Amstelveen, Hilversum and Arnhem.
  • 1977: Theatre photos of Maria Austria. Schouwburg Gallery, Tilburg
  • 1991: Model in Photo Austria. Dutch Textile Museum (Nederlands Textielmuseum), Tilburg
  • 2001: Maria Austria - Holland zoned Haast. Joods Historical Museum, Amsterdam
  • 2002: Maria Austria - Photographs from the 1950s and 1960s. The Hidden Museum, Berlin
  • 2018: Maria Austria - Photographer. Joods Historical Museum, Amsterdam; The Hidden Museum, Berlin
  • 2018/2019: Maria Austria - An Amsterdam Photographer of Neorealism. The Hidden Museum, Berlin. Selection with about one hundred black and white Photographs and documents from the exhibition at the Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam

Literature (selection)

References

  1. ^ Frijns, Martien (January 2018). Maria Austria, fotografe (Eerste druk ed.). Enschede: AFdH Uitgevers. ISBN 978-9072603890.
  2. ^ Grenzen überschreiten : Frauen, Kunst und Exil. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann. 2005. pp. 29–33. ISBN 978-3826031472.
  3. ^ Holland zonder haast 4 (1e dr ed.). Amsterdam: Voetnoot. 2001. ISBN 978-9071877544.
  4. ^ Korotin, Ilse (June 2016). biografiA. Lexikon österreichischer Frauen, Band 3. Wien. p. 163. ISBN 978-3205795902.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ van der Stap, Carla (September 1987). "Maria Austria". Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse Fotografie in monografieen en thema-artikelen (in Dutch). 4 (7). Amsterdam. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  6. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Nicolaisen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Cite error: The named reference Woordenboek was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Cite error: The named reference dasverborgenemuseum was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b c d e f Cite error: The named reference Nees was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b c d e Cite error: The named reference Ruthe was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Holzer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference biografiA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference flyer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Helly was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference MAI was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Lenz was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference van der Stap was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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