Inge Morath Remembered
Marigold Warner recalls the life and work of Inge Morath, the first woman to join Magnum Pictures as a full member, born 100 years ago, on May 27, 1923. The following excerpts are from Warner’s essay.
In 1945, a Russian air raid forced Inge Morath to flee Germany by foot. She had moved to Berlin to study linguistics, but was drafted to work at a munitions factory alongside Ukrainian prisoners of war. Morath, 22 at the time, joined thousands of refugees, walking 455 miles to her parents home in Salzburg, Austria. The journey took almost a week, and at one point it drove her to the brink of suicide.
Morath wouldn’t become a photographer for another decade, but when she did, she refused to photograph war. “Her experience of the tremendous ugliness of what human beings can do to each other marked her for the rest of her life,” says Rebecca Miller, remembering her mother’s legacy on the event of her centenary. “It also made her really appreciate what art can do, which is sort of to make sense of life, to find coherence in an image that seems chaotic.”
Born in Graz, Austria, a century ago on May 27, 1923, Morath lived in several countries throughout her life. Her parents were Nazi sympathizers, and as scientists their work took them to labs and universities all over Europe. She grew up in the shadow of Nazi Germany, and her first encounter with modern art was in 1937 at the notorious Entartete Kunst exhibition organized by the Nazi Party in Munich, consisting of 650 pieces of ‘Degenerate Art’.
The works were captioned with labels denouncing their moral and aesthetic value, in order to “educate” the public on the “art of decay”. For 14-year-old Morath, the exhibition had quite the opposite effect: “I found a number of these paintings exciting and fell in love with Franz Marc’s Blue Horse,” Morath wrote. “Only negative comments were allowed, and thus began a long period of keeping silent and concealing thoughts.” Far from being frivolous or decadent, for Morath art was essential; she later described her photographic practice as “a search for inner truth.”
Morath once spoke about the challenges she encountered: “Being one of the then rather rare women photographers… was often difficult for the simple reason that nobody felt one was serious… I certainly do not think that I got the same forceful male brotherhood support the men got.” But, according to her daughter, “she just got on with it… She never felt sorry for herself,” says Miller. “She was aware that there were always people who had it harder than she did.”
Today, her legacy is continued by the Inge Morath Estate, which coordinates exhibitions, publications and events, and the Inge Morath Award, established by the members of Magnum Photos in tribute to their colleague. Funded by the photographers, the annual $7500 grant is given to a woman or nonbinary photographer under the age of 30, in partnership with the Magnum Foundation.
Inge Morath was born May 27, 1923, and in honor of her centenary, there are numerous celebrations of her work including:
- Inge Morath – Wo ich Fabre sehe/Where I See Color**. Fotohof, Salzburg. May 27 to July 29, 2023
- Inge Morath – Hommage: A catalog to accompany a recent retrospective at Versicherungskammer Kulturstiftung is published by Schirmer Mosel.
- Documenting Israel: Visions of 75 Years: Featuring Inge Morath’s work alongside that of Micha Bar-Am, Robert Capa, Thomas Dworzak, Bruce Gilden, Erich Hartmann, Nanna Heitmann, Sigalit Landau, Helmar Lerski, Inge Morath, Benyamin Reich, David Seymour and Patrick Zachmann. Museum of Tolerance, Jerusalem. Until June 30, 2023
To hide a caption that is obscuring an image, click on the image.
