| | | | Lucien Aigner
Photo/Story
Introduction
Jennifer Uhrhane, Lucien Aigner Photo|Story, Exhibition catalog - January 29-April 24, 2011 (Lincoln, MA: deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, 2011)
Two key events in Lucien Aigner’s life—both involving changes of address—altered his route away from achieving widespread, deserved recognition as an important figure in photography. He was an active and prolific photojournalist from 1925 through the end of 1938, who supplied photo-illustrated articles to major European magazines. Aigner moved to New York to avoid the threat of World War II, and his American career restarted slowly. Known almost exclusively in Europe, he changed his visual style and working methods to cater to American editors’ tastes and obtained work with many important U.S. publications. In the mid-1950s Aigner left New York due to a combination of issues, and his subsequent move to Great Barrington, MA, effectively turned the spotlight off his photo-reporting career. He opened a photo studio and changed the types of photographs he took. Although he enjoyed a brief resurgence of publicity for his work in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Aigner is still a relatively obscure figure in the history of photography. Had he remained in Europe, or at least in New York City, an introduction to his life and work would probably be unnecessary.
The conception of this exhibition resulted from a series of rediscoveries. When Aigner and his young family immigrated to the U.S. in 1938, he left behind in Paris approximately 50,000 negatives in a suitcase—comprising his entire European career. This European work briefly resurfaced in 1950 when his brother Etienne (the luxury leather goods designer) returned the suitcase to him after World War II. Not acting on it until the early 1970s, Aigner took samples of his work to a major photography museum and library for evaluation. This resulted in some institutional purchases and exhibitions. Nevertheless, Aigner’s deserved place as a pioneer in the history of photojournalism remains to be widely recognized, and when Aigner passed away in 1999 at age 97, he left his family a huge archive of his life’s work. This archive is located in Allston, MA, and in 2009, the photographer’s daughter, Anne-Marie Aigner contacted deCordova Museum Overseers Cynthia Randall and Carmen Verrier, who then called the museum’s attention to the existence of this collection.
The Lucien Aigner Estate archive consists of, among other items, thousands of negatives and photographs (vintage and printed during the artist’s lifetime); contact sheets; correspondence and unpublished writings (in English, French, and Hungarian) including his memoirs, radio scripts and plays; photographic and film equipment; magazine and newspaper clippings; articles written by the artist on photography; and significantly, many typewritten photo stories and captions that Aigner wrote to accompany his photographs. The archive is a curator or art historian’s good fortune and this exhibition only begins to reveal the gems it contains. Aigner’s extensive documentation of public figures, major events and the everyday lives of ordinary European and American citizens during the first half of the twentieth century is an important record.
This exhibition includes seventy-four gelatin silver prints of Aigner’s Europe-based work, sourced entirely from the archive. The majority consists of selected photo stories, complemented by Aigner’s own texts, and upon which he built his highly successful early photographic career. This is the first time most of these images will be seen since they were pitched to a photo editor or published in a magazine some eighty years ago. And it is the first major museum exhibition of his work in almost thirty years. Aigner has yet again been discovered.
Photojournalism
“From every place on the globe where an event of any significance occurs, photographs, dispatches and articles will find their way into the pages of VU, with columns and special reports and illustrations serving as links that connect its readers with the rest of the world…”
VU magazine founder, Lucien Vogel, in VU issue no. 1, March 21, 1928
This declaration appeared in the debut issue of France’s VU magazine. This periodical and others such as Germany’s Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung and Münchner Illustrierte Presse; Great Britain’s Weekly Illustrated and Picture Post; and the United States’ Life were among the first news magazines to regularly and prominently feature photographs in their articles. These photo-illustrated magazines flourished by the 1930s because of substantial developments in image reproduction, the photo profession, and camera equipment during the late 1800s to the mid-1920s. This period marked the beginning of modern photojournalism.
Initially working as a Hungarian newspaper reporter, Lucien Aigner became frustrated with the images that accompanied his news stories, so in 1925 he began to take his own photographs. He sought to create a closer relationship between the pictures and his text. Aigner also learned that articles submitted with images were more likely to be published, and brought in more income. Most importantly, making his own pictures satisfied his need for total creative control over the end product. As a freelancer and through ARAL, the news picture agency he founded in Paris, Aigner produced large quantities of photo stories for VU and other major photo-illustrated magazines.
Aigner placed importance on the combination of multiple photographs and words to provide a complete account of an event. Significantly, this exhibition acknowledges Aigner’s original intent by presenting his images with accompanying text.
The Suitcase Story
After a successful photojournalism career in Europe, Lucien Aigner left Paris for New York City in 1938 with his wife and their first son. In order to bring a baby carriage, Aigner left behind a suitcase filled with approximately 50,000 negatives, comprising his entire European career. According to the memoirs of Lucien and his two siblings, Betty and Etienne, the “suitcase story” has a number of variations. During World War II, the suitcase passed through many hands, and was hidden in multiple locations until it briefly resurfaced after the war. Aigner’s brother obtained a U.S. visa, moved from Paris to New York, and returned the suitcase to him in 1950.
Aigner stored it out of sight in his darkroom for two decades, but around 1970, he rediscovered his “lost” negatives. It is not clear whether he forgot about the suitcase or did not believe the old work was worth revisiting. Thinking the contents might be of some value, Aigner took samples to a few major institutions for evaluation, and this resulted in a number of print purchases and exhibitions. He spent the rest of his years printing, exhibiting, and placing a small portion of his work in several museum collections.
The recovery of Aigner’s European career was an event of great relevance: “all of a sudden the realization hit me that there in that suitcase, locked up, was my life.” He rediscovered not only his own work, but also a remarkable historical record of public figures, major events and the everyday lives of European and American citizens during the first half of the twentieth century.
When Aigner passed away in 1999 at age 97, his family inherited his life’s work. The Lucien Aigner Estate archive contains, among other items, thousands of negatives and photographs (vintage and printed during the artist’s lifetime); contact sheets; published and unpublished writings (in English, French, and Hungarian) including his memoirs and articles on photography, radio and theater scripts; photographic and film equipment; magazine and newspaper clippings; and the many typewritten photo stories and captions that Aigner wrote to accompany his photographs. This exhibition only begins to reveal the contents of the archive.
The Leica Camera
Through the 1920s and into the 30s, most news photographers used slow, cumbersome glass-plate film cameras, which only permitted two exposures per plate holder and required frequent film changes. The glass plates also contributed to the weight of the cameras, necessitating the use of tripods. This severely limited the ability of photographers to move, reframe shots, and shoot quickly. The Leica, a compact camera invented in 1914 and introduced to the consumer market in 1925, used 35mm movie roll film, was lightweight, portable, and did not require a tripod. The Leica’s film was as light-sensitive as glass plates by 1931, and its fast lenses and small size allowed photographers to smuggle these pocket-sized cameras into places that prohibited journalists or flashes, or had less than ideal lighting for photography. Its flexibility also enabled photographers to adapt to constantly changing scenes of fleeting activity indoors or outdoors. In addition, the Leica stimulated the proliferation of photo-illustrated magazines; its 36-exposure roll of film increased the number of possible shots per situation. Photographers could make successive exposures, which translated into image sequences that described a personality or incident. This led to the development of the photo essay, or photo story. The Leica drastically changed the nature of journalistic photography.
Lucien Aigner was among the first of his European colleagues, such as Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, André Kertész, and Erich Salomon, to use this advanced photographic technology. Aigner began his career in photojournalism in 1925, purchased his first Leica in 1928, and shot for many of the newly established photo-illustrated magazines in the 1920s-30s. His images documented a range of themes with a sense of drama, humor, and timing. Assisted by this nimble camera, Aigner chose angles of view and key moments in time to help describe a person, private room, or public event. His photographs gave viewers a sensation of intimacy, as if they were part of the experience. These unstaged “candid” pictures, taken outside the realm of the photo studio, were a revolutionary change from the industry standard of formal, posed news photographs.
Singular images
One of the most important aspects of Lucien Aigner’s work is the juxtaposition of his own text and multiple photographs, in the form of photo stories. However, he also created striking singular images that confirm his image making talent. Several of these photographs may have come from larger related groupings, but in many cases, the accompanying photographs have not yet been found. These singular images demonstrate Aigner’s ability to catch emotion, action, and environment at just the right moment, whether through expressive candid portraits or wider views of public and private gatherings. He took pictures without the subject’s permission or knowledge, and called the method an “unmasking of the pompous, the self-important, and the mighty…” Aigner targeted celebrities, politicians, and the aristocracy, but also ignored the press tradition and photographed the unknowns—children, workers, and the everyday public.
Vintage vs. Modern
Lucien Aigner printed the majority of the photographs on exhibit at or very near the time when he first exposed and processed his film. Termed “vintage,” these original prints from the 1930s have the patina of use. They were sent out to magazine editors, paper-clipped to typewritten stories, and handled by probably dozens of hands before being stored in envelopes or folders for decades in Aigner’s studio. They are also warm in tone due to age or latent chemicals. Further, Aigner did not retouch them; white dust spots that occurred during darkroom printing are visible on their surfaces. However, a few of the photographs in this gallery differ in size, tone, and contrast from the vintage prints. Aigner, or an assistant under his supervision, printed these “modern” prints more recently with newer photo paper, most likely in the 1970s-90s. The original vintage versions of the modern prints were either sold to museums during the artist’s lifetime, or have not yet been found in the archive.
Jennifer Uhrhane
Guest Curator
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