Help me find this mystery photographer
March 23, 2011 8:03 AM Subscribe
Help me identify mystery photographer! This image (a little NSFW) came up today on How To Be A Retronaut. I plugged it into TinEye and it found more examples but none of them have details about the photographer. I found this other image (a bit more NSFW) which may be by the same photographer and has a more complete 'signature' in the lower right. The signature looks like it might be a French name. Any clues?
I would say based on the "M" in both signatures, it's definitely the same photographer. Unfortunately, I can't identify the photographer or make out the signature.
posted by Felicity Rilke at 10:00 AM on March 23, 2011
posted by Felicity Rilke at 10:00 AM on March 23, 2011
The signature, as hard as it is to make out, may read "MANASSE / WIEN" (Vienna). Atelier Manasse or Studio Manasse was a portrait photography studio in Vienna in the 1920s/30s.
You would think, given that information, assuming I'm not totally wrong, there'd be more information available about your specific picture. However, I wasn't able to find anything.
posted by cacophony at 12:54 PM on March 23, 2011 [2 favorites]
You would think, given that information, assuming I'm not totally wrong, there'd be more information available about your specific picture. However, I wasn't able to find anything.
posted by cacophony at 12:54 PM on March 23, 2011 [2 favorites]
Poking the first image into tineye lead me to this page (nsfw), with more photos by the same artist. The first image has the caption "Photo MANASSE".
posted by fings at 12:57 PM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by fings at 12:57 PM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
This tumblr (link NSFW) has a whole set of pictures from the studio, and on the linked page 7, your second image appears. So I'd consider that relatively conclusive that the information above, at least, is accurate. So at least you're one step better than TinEye.
posted by cacophony at 12:58 PM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by cacophony at 12:58 PM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
I'll have to double check tonight, but I may have this book at home; if so, and if your image is in it (it did look familiar to me), I will report any additional information I find.
posted by fings at 1:04 PM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by fings at 1:04 PM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
And lastly, that link to your picture contains the credit "possibly Madame Blaubart, 1931". Searching for other similarly attributed pictures yields at least one other thematically-related photo.
posted by cacophony at 1:05 PM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by cacophony at 1:05 PM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
God, I love Metafilter's Hive Mind.
And now, Studio Manasse as well.
posted by IAmBroom at 1:21 PM on March 23, 2011
And now, Studio Manasse as well.
posted by IAmBroom at 1:21 PM on March 23, 2011
Possibly modern, since in the second photo, the guy has sunglasses. But I, too, can't match the signature. Manaut? Manout? Maname? who knows, the signature could be Cyrillic for all we can tell from the low resolution.
posted by babbageboole at 1:22 PM on March 23, 2011
posted by babbageboole at 1:22 PM on March 23, 2011
+1 Internets to cacophony! Wow, good job!!!
posted by babbageboole at 1:23 PM on March 23, 2011
posted by babbageboole at 1:23 PM on March 23, 2011
Best answer: There's also this Wikimedia image of a restaurant displaying many of the studio's photographs -- mainly more conventional portraiture.
From the main page of the tumblr cacophony linked to:
Studio Manasse
…Olga Solarics (1896-1969) and her husband Adorja'n von Wlassics (1893-1946) ran the Manasse' Foto-Salon in Vienna from 1922-1938. Olga seems to have been the one interested in the photographic nude. She (or they) exhibited at the 1st International Salon of Nude Photography in Paris in 1933…”
“…Studio Manasse, which flourished in the 1930s in Vienna, captured more than just portrait photography bursting with erotic charge; it immortalized the fluid state of beauty and the “new woman”: confident in her own sexuality as she struggled to redefine her position in the modern world. Each picture offers a conflict of concepts, as provocative poses are presented in such traditional roles that the cynicism intended renders them humorously absurd . Adorjan and Olga Wlassics, a husband-and-wife team, founded Studio Manasse in the early 1920s. The first Manasse illustrations appeared in magazines in 1924, a booming industry at the time, as the movie industry skyrocketed and publications aimed to satisfy a public obsessed with glimpses into the world of glamour. Attracting some of the leading ladies of the time from film, theater, opera, and vaudeville,Studio Manasse created masterpieces, employing all the techniques of makeup, retouching, and overpainting to keep their subjects happy while upholding an uncompromised artistic vision.Molded bodies were dreams with alabaster or marbel-like skin; backgrounds were staged so that the photographer could control each environment. And as their art found a home, the Wlassics found themselves able to afford a pattern of life similar to those reflected in their photographs. Their clients ran the gamut, from the advertising agencies to private buyers. When the Wlassics opened a new studio ni Berlin, their business in Vienna was managed more and more by associates, until 1937, when the firm’s name was sold to another photographer. Adorjan passed away just ten years later; Olga remarried and died in 1969…”
text and some of the images courtesy of
historical ziegfeld
There's a print for sale here (actually two, but one -- the better one -- is sold already). If you search on Manassé Foto-Salon, at least one formal name of the studio, you can find more auctions and print sales.
in the second photo, the guy has sunglasses
Note that the invention of sunglasses (Foster Grants) was 1929, and by 1930 they were enormously popular worldwide. This was exactly the time of the photography. Solarics may have been one of the first photographers to capture their ability to confer ironic detachment.
posted by dhartung at 3:09 PM on March 23, 2011
From the main page of the tumblr cacophony linked to:
Studio Manasse
…Olga Solarics (1896-1969) and her husband Adorja'n von Wlassics (1893-1946) ran the Manasse' Foto-Salon in Vienna from 1922-1938. Olga seems to have been the one interested in the photographic nude. She (or they) exhibited at the 1st International Salon of Nude Photography in Paris in 1933…”
“…Studio Manasse, which flourished in the 1930s in Vienna, captured more than just portrait photography bursting with erotic charge; it immortalized the fluid state of beauty and the “new woman”: confident in her own sexuality as she struggled to redefine her position in the modern world. Each picture offers a conflict of concepts, as provocative poses are presented in such traditional roles that the cynicism intended renders them humorously absurd . Adorjan and Olga Wlassics, a husband-and-wife team, founded Studio Manasse in the early 1920s. The first Manasse illustrations appeared in magazines in 1924, a booming industry at the time, as the movie industry skyrocketed and publications aimed to satisfy a public obsessed with glimpses into the world of glamour. Attracting some of the leading ladies of the time from film, theater, opera, and vaudeville,Studio Manasse created masterpieces, employing all the techniques of makeup, retouching, and overpainting to keep their subjects happy while upholding an uncompromised artistic vision.Molded bodies were dreams with alabaster or marbel-like skin; backgrounds were staged so that the photographer could control each environment. And as their art found a home, the Wlassics found themselves able to afford a pattern of life similar to those reflected in their photographs. Their clients ran the gamut, from the advertising agencies to private buyers. When the Wlassics opened a new studio ni Berlin, their business in Vienna was managed more and more by associates, until 1937, when the firm’s name was sold to another photographer. Adorjan passed away just ten years later; Olga remarried and died in 1969…”
text and some of the images courtesy of
historical ziegfeld
There's a print for sale here (actually two, but one -- the better one -- is sold already). If you search on Manassé Foto-Salon, at least one formal name of the studio, you can find more auctions and print sales.
in the second photo, the guy has sunglasses
Note that the invention of sunglasses (Foster Grants) was 1929, and by 1930 they were enormously popular worldwide. This was exactly the time of the photography. Solarics may have been one of the first photographers to capture their ability to confer ironic detachment.
posted by dhartung at 3:09 PM on March 23, 2011
This surreal nude photo on Getty Images is described as being by Manasse and displays the same signature as the two pictures in the OP.
So +1 more for Manasse.
posted by mattn at 4:09 PM on March 23, 2011
So +1 more for Manasse.
posted by mattn at 4:09 PM on March 23, 2011
You can find a lot more info if you google Atelier Manassé
posted by interplanetjanet at 4:45 PM on March 23, 2011
posted by interplanetjanet at 4:45 PM on March 23, 2011
Yes indeed, your first photo appears on p.141 of Divas and Lovers (the book I linked to above), and cacophony's thematically-related photo is on p.140.
The one on 140 is labeled "Madame Blaubart, c. 1931"; your first photo is labeled "The ideal Gattenwahl, c. 1931".
As dhartung posted, Studio Manasse was founded by the married couple of Adorjan and Olga Wlassics (originally Vlassics, spelling varied over the course of Adorjan's life).
Thanks for posting, I had not pulled this book of the shelf in a while. It was one of my finds at The Strand some years back.
posted by fings at 7:35 PM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
The one on 140 is labeled "Madame Blaubart, c. 1931"; your first photo is labeled "The ideal Gattenwahl, c. 1931".
As dhartung posted, Studio Manasse was founded by the married couple of Adorjan and Olga Wlassics (originally Vlassics, spelling varied over the course of Adorjan's life).
Thanks for posting, I had not pulled this book of the shelf in a while. It was one of my finds at The Strand some years back.
posted by fings at 7:35 PM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
BTW, google translate tells me Gattenwahl translates to "mate selection".
posted by fings at 7:37 PM on March 23, 2011
posted by fings at 7:37 PM on March 23, 2011
Awesome, good to have the loop closed, I got interested in this too. You also reminded me that I have not had the pleasure of The Strand in some years...
posted by cacophony at 9:20 PM on March 23, 2011
posted by cacophony at 9:20 PM on March 23, 2011
I should also note that Blaubart is German for Bluebeard, the tale of a nobleman who murdered his wives, so Madame Blaubart isn't the young woman's name, but the name of the photo, implying she is posing as a woman who has slain a number of former husbands, as evidenced by the sword and heads.
posted by fings at 10:52 PM on March 23, 2011
posted by fings at 10:52 PM on March 23, 2011
Response by poster: Thank you everyone! The other photos from them are equally delightful.
posted by jdfan at 2:12 AM on March 24, 2011
posted by jdfan at 2:12 AM on March 24, 2011
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posted by Namlit at 8:14 AM on March 23, 2011