Pioneering Female Photographer Marianne Breslauer’s Stunning Photography From the 1920s to 1930s

Marianne Breslauer (November 20, 1909 – February 7, 2001) was a German photographer, photojournalist and pioneer of street photography. She belonged to a generation of women photographers who managed to take advantage of the freedom afforded them by the Weimar Republic. Her work is a notable example of the “new photography.”

La Rotonde, Paris, 1930

Breslauer’s brief and promising career as a photographer, unfortunately, was cut short by emigration and exile as she was a Jewish woman living under the National-Socialist regime. Her works, however, were published in many leading magazines until 1934 and now form part of the history of photography.

When asked in an interview what made a good shot, Marianne Breslauer answered at once and without any hesitation, “You know because people don’t walk past it in an exhibition, because people are attracted by a page in a magazine or stop browsing a book. Neither technical perfection nor striking subject matter are decisive; what matters is the power of the image, the expression –the secret of the moment captured–”.

Take a look at Breslauer's stunning body of work through these 32 beautiful photos:

Berlin, 1927

Paul Citroen portrait, Berlin, 1917

On the ferry, Antwerp, 1929

Auteuil, 1929

Untitled, 1929

Summer, 1929

Paris, 1929

Paris, 1929

At the Seine, 1929

Quai de Seine, 1929

Paris, 1929

Untitled, Paris, 1929

Homeless, Paris, 1929

Paul Citroen and Dr. Dausse, Paris, 1929

Shirt with 'KaDeWe, Berlin' label., circa 1930

Acrobatics, Berlin, 1930

Lützowufer Bridge, Berlin, 1930

Christmas display, Berlin, 1930

Alexandria, 1931

Mannequins, Berlin, 1932

Mannequins, Berlin, 1932

Zirkus-Junge, 1932

Zirkus-Junge, 1932

Pamplona, 1933

School girl, Girona, 1933

Annemarie Schwarzenbach crossing the Eiffel Bridge over the Onyar river, Girona, 1933

Annemarie Schwarzenbach with her car and a shepherd in the Pyrenees, 1933

Annemarie Schwarzenbach in her car and some gypsy children, Pyrenees, 1933

Annemarie Schwarzenbach with a friend in Potsdam, 1934

Ruth von Morgen, Berlin, 1934

Défense d’afficher, Paris, 1937

(via Museu Nacional)