The photographer Dora Kallmus (1881–1963) had a studio in Vienna and later in Paris. Early in her career, she adopted the name d’Ora and came to be known as Madame d’Ora. Her career as a photographer of the famous and beautiful between 1907 and 1957 spans a wide range of subjects: the first painter she photographed was Gustav Klimt and the last Pablo Picasso.
Madame d’Ora’s studio became a fashionable meeting place. Aristocrats, actresses and fashion designers alike appreciated d’Oras abilities, especially her intuition and her knack for arranging clothes and accessories: thanks to clever lighting and precise retouching they looked more elegant in d’ Oras pictures than they did in their own mirrors. She was an apprentice at the famous portrait photographer Nicola Perscheid’s studio in Berlin and also had academic training since she was among the first women admitted to theory courses at the Austrian photographic school G
raphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt. d’Ora understood which shades of colour were well suited to black and white photography, and her focus on contemporary fashion led to the publication of her fashion photographs in the greatest fashion magazines of the time. The Viennese models wore creations by the Wiener Werkstätte and Schwestern Flöge, while in Paris, they wore designs by designers such as Balenciaga, Lanvin, Chanel and milliner Madame Agnès.
In 1925, d’Ora opened a studio in Paris. She turned her lens on artists, variety artists, and trailblazers such as Tamara de Lempicka, Tsuguharu Foujita, Maurice Chevalier and Josephine Baker.
Being Jewish, d’Ora lost her studio in Paris in 1940 and was forced to hide for years from prosecution by German troops occupying France. Friends and family were persecuted. Her sister was deported and murdered. From 1945, after her narrow escape, the society portraitist directed her sharp yet empathetic focus on the victims of the War and the brutality of Parisian slaughterhouses. For her, the cattle waiting for slaughter represented the persecuted Jews. At the same time, she accepted society portrait commissions to make ends meet. One such example is her photographs of choreographer Marquis de Cuevas’ flamboyant ball in Biarritz, which featured 2,000 guests wearing 18th century-themed costumes. The contrasts are striking.
The exhibition is a collaboration with Monika Faber and Magdalena Vuković of the research based Photoinstitut Bonartes in Vienna.
Due the delicate nature of the material, we present two sets of vintage photographs over the course of the exhibition: the second set of photographs will be introduced on May 17.
Link to exhibition textsLink to biographies