Henri Martinie: Hommes de Lettres
Henri Martinie (1897-1965) was a French photographer active in the French Avant-Garde and Anarchist environment of the twenties and thirties.
He made writers’ portraits for several press agencies. His photographs were a.o. published in "Vogue". In the exhibition you can find a copy of Vogue dating from 1925 in which the photographs of Martinie were published next to the ones by Man Ray… Henri Martinie’s portraits fit perfectly in the Avant-Garde atmosphere.
He pictured the writer very closely so that you can only see the face, photographed from a somewhat higher point of view with an alienating perspective as a result. Through a perfect control of the sharpness, we see very sharply outlined eyes and lips while the rest of the image melts into soft unsharpness. Especially the eyes and the fleshy mouth draw the attention.
