Inge Morath

Inge Morath (1923-2002, Austria) studied languages at university in Berlin. After the Second World War she worked as a translator and journalist, first as Vienna Correspondent and later as Austrian Editor, for Heute, an illustrated magazine from Munich. She collaborated with the photographer Ernst Haas in post-war Vienna, publishing her articles with Haas' pictures. In 1949, Morath and Haas were invited by Robert Capa to join the newly-founded Magnum Photos in Paris, where she later worked as an editor. When she presented her first large photo essay to Capa, in 1953, he invited her to join the agency as a photographer. In 1953-54 she worked with Henri Cartier-Bresson as a researcher and assistant, and in 1955 she was the first woman to become a full member of Magnum Photos. During the late 1950s, Morath travelled widely, covering stories in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the United States and South America for such publications as Holiday, Paris Match and Vogue. She photographed artists for Robert Delpire's magazine L'Œil, meeting the artist Saul Steinberg in 1958. When she went to his home to make a portrait Steinberg greeted her at his door wearing a mask that he had fashioned from a paper bag. Over a period of several years they collaborated on a series of portraits, inviting individuals and groups to pose for Morath, wearing Steinberg's masks.