Madame d'Ora

Abstract

Born Dora Kallmus (1881-1963), the Austrian fashion and portrait photographer who went by the moniker Madame d'Ora was the most acclaimed portraitist of fin de siècle Vienna. After relocating to Paris in the 1920s, she opened one of the most stylish Art Deco portrait studios where her models included Pablo Picasso, Josephine Baker, and Collette, among many others. This book, accompanying the largest exhibition devoted to Madame d'Ora ever presented in the United States, includes sections focusing on the different periods of the photographer's life, from her early upbringing as the daughter of Jewish intellectuals in Vienna, to her days as a premier society portraitist, through her survival during the Holocaust.

Contents

Renee Price / Foreword -- Monika Faber / Working "by Feeling and Intuition": Dora Kallmus's innovative path to becoming a sought-after photographer of the famous and beautiful -- Monika Faber / Family constellation -- Christian Brandstatter / "A dog's life between clients and darkroom" -- Plates I -- Esther Ruelfs / D'Ora's photographs of women in the illustrated magazines of the 1920s -- Monika Faber / Madame Agnes -- Katrin Bomhoff / D'Ora and the history of Ullstein -- Plates II -- Jean-Marc Dreyfus / "...That would mean passing through this unfamiliar world with my eyes closed, and that would be unforgiveable" -- Lisa Silverman / Art of loss: D'Ora's slaughterhouse photographs and Haus Doranna -- Magdalena Vukovic / The sun king's party -- Magdalena Vukovic / Coming to a close: D'Ora's final creative phase, 1938-58 -- Plates III.