Miroir des Avant-Gardes

Florence Henri (New York, 1893-Compiègne, 1982) was a complete artist: she first turned to music and then to painting – she was a student of Vassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Fernand Léger – before choosing photography. She quickly became one of the important figures of the avant-garde between the late 1920s and early 1940s. She became friends with Carl Einstein, Lázló Moholy-Nagy, Hans Arp, Hans Richter and John Heartfield. She opened her studio in Paris and specialized in portraits. Gisèle Freund was one of her students.

Her perpetual search for new forms and her mastery of perspective, with the introduction of mirrors and various objects, led her to create original compositions, including her famous self-portraits and her still life compositions.

This book is a retrospective of his photographic work, which includes self-portraits, abstract compositions, artists’ portraits, nudes, photomontages, photocollages, as well as documentary photographs taken in Rome, Paris and Brittany.