595 - Denise Colomb* (Paris 1902 - 2004 Paris)

Denise Colomb* (Paris 1902 - 2004 Paris) India gelatin silver print 23,8 x 30,4 cm later print from the 1960s verso photographer’s initials and Denise Colomb volume trois stamp SCHÄTZPREIS / ESTIMATE € 700 - 1200 STARTPREIS / STARTING PRICE € 700 Denise Colomb (1902–2004), born Denise Loeb, was a French photographer best known for her evocative portraits of artists and her social documentary reportage. Her photographic career began during her time in Indochina (1935–1937); later, in post-World War II Paris, she created an extensive series of portraits featuring artists and intellectuals. She photographed Antonin Artaud for the first time in 1947, gaining access to numerous artists of the Parisian avant-garde through her brother, the gallerist Pierre Loeb. Her subjects included Giacometti, Picasso, Miró, Nicolas de Staël, and Max Ernst, among many others. In 1948, at the invitation of Aimé Césaire, she traveled to Martinique and Guadeloupe, where she produced comprehensive photographic reportage. Concurrently, she worked for magazines such as Regards, Le Photographe, and Réalités. Colomb’s work belongs to the tradition of French humanist and poetic photography—a context in which she is frequently mentioned alongside Robert Doisneau, Édouard Boubat, Izis, and Willy Ronis. However, her human-centered observation of everyday life is combined with a distinctive mastery of portraiture and an interest in experimental photographic techniques. In addition to tight framing and intensive use of natural light, Colomb employed solarization, superimposition, and other darkroom processes. Her work thus bridges humanist photography, reportage, artist portraiture, and experimental photography. Her encounters with Antonin Artaud and Aimé Césaire, along with her connections to the Parisian art scene, also establish her as a significant photographic chronicler of the French cultural world in the post-war era. 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.