FLORENCE HENRI (1893-1982)

Gustav Stotz, Director of Film und Foto, commented in 1929 in the May issue of Das Kunstblatt on the distinctive elements of the new photography: 'A new optic has developed. We see things differently now, without painterly intent in the impressionistic sense. Today things are important that earlier were hardly noticed: for example shoe laces, gutters, spools of thread, fabrics, machines, etc. They interest us for their material substance, for the simple quality of the thing-in-itself; they interest us as means of creating space-form on surfaces....' (quoted in Coke, Avantgarde Photography in Germany 1919-1939, Schirmer-Mosel, 1992, p.34)