Jörg Maass Kunsthandel

Timeline

1899

Born in Frankfurt to affluent bourgeois family.

1920

Enrolls in the University of Frankfurt to study mathematics and physics but soon changes to art history eventually pursuing a doctoral degree.

1928

To illustrate her dissertation on an architect, she takes up photography and begins using a 9x12c, Voigtlander plate camera. She eventually abandons her dissertation to pursue a career as photographer.

1929 - 1930

Her photographs are reproduced in photo-essays for Frankfurter Illustriete’s weekly supplement Das Illustriete Blatt.

1929

Purchases a Leica camera enjoying the freedom it provides

1930 - 1939

Her portraits, fashion and architectural studies are published in VU, Harper’s Bazaar, Le Monde, L’Illustration, Illustré, and Regards. Her work is included in the Groupe Annuel des Photographes at La Pleiade in 1931, 1932, 1933, and 1938 alongside that of Germaine Krull, André Kertesz, Florence Henri, Emmanuel Sougez, Man Ray, Henri Cartier-Bresson. Despite this she does not communicate or work closely with other photographers.

1930

Moves to Paris in the Fall.

1932

New York gallerist Julien Levy includes Bing’s work in his seminal exhibition

1934

Experiments with solarization (which she discovered independently of Man Ray) to create a dream-like night-time atmosphere of statuaries, lights, and water.

1936

At the invitation of Carmel Snow she visits the US where she meets Alfred Stieglitz. This same year she has solo exhibitions at Galerie Chasseurs d’Images, Paris and Musée des Arts Décoratifs

1937

Marries pianist and musicologist Konrad Wolff. Her photographs are included in New York’s Museum of Modern Art’s “History of Photography” exhibition.

1940

She and her husband are interned in Paris as enemy aliens and in 1941 they immigrate to New York.

1947

Starts using electronic flash and larger format Rollei camera.

1957

Begins working exclusively in color until stopping completely in 1959.

1959

Quits photography and devotes herself to poetry which she composes in English, French, and German. Makes collages and drawings which incorporate photographic elements

1976

Her first solo exhibition in 17 years, Lee Witkin Gallery, New York. The show revived and sparked a new interest in her work.

Published Numbers in Images and is rediscovered as a photographer by The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

1982

Publishes Women from Childhood to Old Age.

1985

A retrospective Ilse Bing: Three Decades of Photography was shown at the New Orleans Museum of Art.

1987

The retrospective then moves to the International Center of Photography in New York, and later to the Kunstverein in Frankfurt.

1998

Dies in New York on the March 10 at the age of 98.