594 - Eli Lotar* (Paris 1905 - 1969 Paris)

Eli Lotar* (Paris 1905 - 1969 Paris) Marine fauna, around 1930 vintage gelatin silver print 24 x 30 cm verso photographer's stamp, as well as inscribed faune marin, crabes, crevettes, anémons Additional participating artist: Jean Painlevé (Paris 1902 – 1989 Paris) SCHÄTZPREIS / ESTIMATE € 1400 - 2000 STARTPREIS / STARTING PRICE € 1400 Éli Lotar (1905–1969) was a French photographer and cinematographer of Romanian origin and a key figure in the Parisian photographic avant-garde. After returning to Paris in 1924, he initially turned to film before focusing on photography from 1927 onwards. Influenced by and working alongside Germaine Krull, he developed a distinctive visual language that combined reportage, social documentation, modern architecture, and surrealist imagery. His photographs appeared in avant-garde magazines such as Jazz, Variétés, Bifur, and Documents; he became particularly well-known for his unconventional shots of labor, machinery, streets, and the fringes of society. Concurrently, Lotar worked as a cinematographer, contributing to films by Jean Painlevé, Pierre Prévert, and Luis Buñuel, among others. Lotar’s work lies at the heart of European avant-garde and experimental photography during the interwar period. Along with Germaine Krull and André Kertész, he belonged to the generation that developed a new form of photographic reportage for magazines like *VU* and Variétés; joint exhibitions with Florence Henri, Man Ray, László Moholy-Nagy, and others demonstrate his integration into the international network of modern photography. His radical cropping, unusual perspectives, and focus on details of machines, bodies, and landscapes blend documentary photography with surrealist and constructivist tendencies. His images of the sea and coast, as well as his work from Spain and Greece, further reveal Lotar’s interest in an experimental, formally pared-down view of landscape and nature. PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights and platform fee. In the case of normal taxation (marked ° at the estimate), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax is added to the sum of the highest bid, the buyer's premium and platform fee. This amounts to 13% for paintings, drawings, graphic works and sculptures and 20% for photographs and all other items. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.