Gisèle Freund

{{Short description|French photographer (1908–2000)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}} {{Infobox artist | name = Gisèle Freund | image = Self Portrait of Gisele Freund.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Self portrait with camera, Mexico City 1950 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1908|12|19|df=y}} | birth_place = Berlin, Germany | death_date = {{death date and age|2000|3|31|1908|12|19|df=y}} | death_place = Paris, France | education = {{indented plainlist| * University of Freiburg * University of Frankfurt * Sorbonne (Ph.D. in sociology) }} | field = Photography | movement = | works = | patrons = | awards = {{indented plainlist| * Officier des Arts et Lettres * Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur }} | spouse = {{marriage|Pierre Blum|1935|1948|reason=divorced}} }}

'''Gisèle Freund''' (born ''Gisela Freund''; 19 December 1908<ref name="Guardian">{{cite web|title=Gisele Freund Obituary|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/apr/01/guardianobituaries1|website=The Guardian|date=April 2000|access-date=22 January 2018}}</ref> {{spaced ndash}}31 March 2000<ref name="Guardian"/>) was a German-born French photographer and photojournalist, famous for her documentary photography and portraits of writers and artists.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Durrant |first=Nancy |title=Frida Kahlo's last years |newspaper=The Times |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/photography-uk/article/frida-kahlos-last-years-n5nxmc3k8hf |access-date=2022-12-06 |issn=0140-0460}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-05-29 |title=Slideshow - Gisèle Freund - Blog {{!}} LFI - Leica Fotografie International |url=https://lfi-online.de/ceemes/en/blog/photo-stories/gisele-freund-on-the-streets-on-may-1st-611.html |access-date=2022-12-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150529064723/https://lfi-online.de/ceemes/en/blog/photo-stories/gisele-freund-on-the-streets-on-may-1st-611.html |archive-date=29 May 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-06-20 |title=Portraits of Virginia Woolf: here, the true face of the modern writer |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/20/virginia-woolf-portraits-in-art-modern-writer |access-date=2022-12-06 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Kimmelman |first=Michael |date=2009-01-07 |title=A Berliner's Portraits of People and Her Familiar, and Foreign, Home |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/arts/design/08abroad.html |access-date=2022-12-06 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Her best-known book, ''Photographie et société'' (1974), is a expanded edition of her seminal 1936 dissertation. It was the first sociohistorical study on photography as a democratic medium of self-representation in the age of technological reproduction. With this first doctoral thesis on photography at the Sorbonne, she was one of the first women habilitated there.<ref>Klaus Honnef, Frank Weyers, ''Und sie haben Deutschland verlassen ...müssen. Fotografen und ihre Bilder 1928-1997'', Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, 1997, p. 168. The catalogue references Freund's ''Memoires d'œuil''.</ref>

Freund's major contributions to photography include using the Leica Camera (with its ability to house 35 mm film rolls with 36 frames) for documentary reportage and pioneering Kodachrome and Agfacolor positive film for colour portraits of writers and artists, which allowed her to develop a "uniquely candid portraiture style" that distinguishes her in 20th-century photography.<ref name="auto">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Gisèle Freund |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography |last=Zox-Weaver |first=Annalisa |publisher=Routledge |location= |editor-last=Warren |editor-first=Lynne |year=2006 |pages=564–566}}</ref>

Politically left-leaning all her life, she became president of the French Union of Photographers in 1977. In 1981, she took the official portrait of French President François Mitterrand, and was made Officier des Arts et Lettres in 1982 and Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, the highest decoration in France, in 1983. In 1985, she became the first photographer to be honored with a retrospective at the Musée national d'art moderne in Paris.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |entry=Gisèle Freund |encyclopedia=Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women |date=31 December 1999 |last=Meeker |first=Carlene |via=Jewish Women's Archive |entry-url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/freund-gisele |access-date=11 November 2023 }}</ref>

==Biography== [[File:Max Slevogt Portrait Julius Freund.jpg|thumbnail|Max Slevogt, ''Portrait of Julius Freund'', 1925]]

===Early years=== Freund was born in Schöneberg (Berlin) into a textile merchant family, her parents being Julius and Clara (née Dressel) Freund, a wealthy Jewish couple.

Her father, Julius Freund, was a keen art collector, Max Slevogt, Käthe Kollwitz and Max Liebermann were friends of the family. He had an interest in photography as well, like the work of Karl Blossfeldt, whose close-up studies explored the forms of natural objects. Freund's father bought Gisèle her first camera, a Voigtländer 6 × 9 in 1925 and a Leica camera as a present for her graduation in 1929.<ref>Stiftung Stadtmuseum Catalogue for "Gisèle Freund: A Revisit to Berlin, 1957-1962" [The catalogue is nowhere to be found. Alt ref will follow, since there isn't even a specific page noted.]</ref>

In 1931, Freund studied sociology and art history at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Breisgau, Germany; and in 1932 and 1933 she studied at the University of Frankfurt under Theodor W. Adorno, Karl Mannheim and Norbert Elias (also known as the Frankfurt School).<ref name="auto"/><ref>See also University of Frankfurt Institute for Social Research.</ref> At university she became an active member of a student socialist group and was determined to use photography as an integral part of her socialist practice. One of her first stories, shot on 1 May 1932, "shows a recent march of anti-fascist students" who had been "regularly attacked by Nazi groups".<ref name="nouvelobs.com">{{Cite web |url=http://blogs.rue89.nouvelobs.com/oelpv/2011/11/29/gisele-freund-et-walter-benjamin-les-amis-retrouves-225828 |title=Gisèle Freund et Walter Benjamin, les amis retrouvés |last=Mesplé |first=Louis |publisher=Le nouvel Observateur |website=Rue89 les blogs - On est là pour voir |date=29 November 2011 |access-date=29 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606234143/http://blogs.rue89.nouvelobs.com/oelpv/2011/11/29/gisele-freund-et-walter-benjamin-les-amis-retrouves-225828 |archive-date=6 June 2014 }}</ref>

===Paris=== In March 1933{{citation needed|date=May 2026}}, some weeks after Adolf Hitler and his regime rose to power in Germany, Walter Benjamin fled to Paris. On 30 May, Gisèle followed him since she was both a socialist activist and a Jew. She escaped to Paris with her negatives strapped around her body to get them past the border guards. Gisèle and Walter Benjamin would continue their friendship in Paris, where Freund would famously photograph him reading at the National Library. They both studied and wrote about art in the 19th and 20th centuries as Freund continued her studies at the Sorbonne.<ref name="nouvelobs.com"/>

Although she was fascinated by portrait photography, Freund never had taken any serious portraits and at that point saw the camera merely as "an instrument for sociological research". André Malraux was the first to ask her to photograph him for an upcoming book, not a conventional portrait, but in a more candid fashion, that was trending in Paris at the time. So they stepped out onto the terrace. The photographs she took of him that day were used by publishers repeatedly the following decades.<ref>{{cite book|title=James Joyce in Paris: His Final Years |url=https://archive.org/details/jamesjoyceinpari0000freu |url-access=registration |first1=Gisèle |last1=Freund |first2=V. B. |last2=Carleton |first3=Simone de |last3=Beauvoir |year=1965 |publisher=Harcourt, Brace & World |location=New York |page=2 |oclc = 295884}}</ref> Being acquainted now, Malraux invited Freund to document the First International Congress in Defence of Culture in Paris of 1935, where she was introduced to and subsequently photographed many of the notable French artists of her day.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fondation-pb-ysl.net/medias/fichiers/DP_Gisele_Freund_2011_UK_WEB.pdf|title=Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris|website=Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris}}</ref> Freund befriended the famed literary partners, Sylvia Beach of Shakespeare and Company, and Adrienne Monnier of Maison des Amis des Livres. In 1935, Monnier arranged a marriage of convenience for Freund with Pierre Blum so that Freund could obtain a residence permit to remain in France legally (they officially divorced after the war in 1948).

In 1936, while Sylvia Beach was visiting the United States, Freund moved into Monnier and Beach's shared apartment and they became intimates. When Beach returned, she ended her intimate relationship with Monnier yet maintained a strong friendship with both Monnier and Freund.<ref>Adrienne Monnier, ''The Very Rich Hours of Adrienne Monnier'', Scribner, 1976, ISBN 0684145022, p. viii.</ref> Freund finished her Ph.D. in sociology and art at the Sorbonne in 1936,<ref name="auto"/> and published her doctoral dissertation as "La photographie en France au dix-neuvième siècle", under the La Maison des Amis des Livres imprint by Monnier.

Monnier "introduced [Freund] to the artists and writers who would prove her most captivating subjects."<ref name="auto" /> Later that year, Freund became internationally recognized with her photojournalistic piece "Northern England", which was published in ''Life'' magazine on 14 December 1936, and showed the effects of the Depression in England. No magazine in France could publish color photographs at that time, so Freund's work with ''Life''—one of the first color mass magazines—would start a lifelong relationship between the photographer and magazine.<ref name="auto"/>

In 1938, Monnier suggested that Freund photograph James Joyce for his upcoming book, ''Finnegans Wake''. Joyce, who disliked being photographed, invited Freund to his Paris flat for a private screening of her previous work. He was impressed enough by Freund's work to allow her to photograph him, and over a period of three days, she captured the most intimate portraits of Joyce during his time in Paris. During one of the sessions he hit his head on a light and cut his forehead. Joyce exclaimed, "I'm bleeding. Your damned photos will be the death of me", which he said, "forgetting in his pain that he had made it a rule never to swear in the presence of a lady."<ref>"On Photographing Joyce" in ''James Joyce in Paris: His Final Years'', p. 4.</ref> Right after the photo-session her taxi crashed, which damaged her cameras and ruined the films. She told Joyce and being superstitious, Joyce was convinced that his cursing had caused the crash, so he invited Freund back to his home for a second round of photographs.<ref>"On Photographing Joyce", in ''James Joyce in Paris: His Final Years'', p. 5.</ref><ref name="auto4">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/arts/the-elegance-of-gisele-freund.html|title=The Elegance of Gisèle Freund|first=Katherine|last=Knorr|newspaper=The New York Times|date=19 October 2011|publisher=}}</ref> ''Time'' magazine used one of these photos for its cover on 8 May 1939. The entire series of photographs would eventually be published in 1965 in ''James Joyce in Paris: His Final Years'' by Freund and V. B. Carleton and a preface by Simone de Beauvoir.

In 1939, after being "twice refused admission to Tavistock Square", Freund gained the confidence of Virginia Woolf and captured the iconic color photographs of the Woolfs on display in the English National Portrait Gallery. Woolf even "agreed to change her clothes to see which best suited the colour harmony and insisted on being photographed with Leonard (and their spaniel Pinka). In some of the prints, Woolf is pale and lined, in others smiling a little and more youthful. The background of fabrics and mural panels by Bell and Grant adds to the value of the images; this was the inner sanctum of the queen of Bloomsbury where parties were given and friends came to tea. Just over a year later the house was destroyed in The Blitz."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/20/virginia-woolf-portraits-in-art-modern-writer|title=Portraits of Virginia Woolf: here, the true face of the modern writer|first=Richard|last=Shone|date=20 June 2014|website=The Guardian}}</ref>

On 10 May 1940, the Wehrmacht started the Battle of France by invading the Benelux states. On 10 June 1940,<ref>GisèleFreund, ''The World in My Camera'', p. [?].</ref> with the Nazi invasion of Paris looming, Freund escaped Paris to the free zone in the Dordogne. Her husband by convenience, Pierre, had been captured and deported to a prison camp. He was able to escape and met with Freund before going back to Paris to fight in the French Resistance. As the wife of an escaped prisoner, a Jew, and a socialist, Freund "feared for her life".<ref>''The World in My Camera'', p. [?].</ref>

In February 1939, half a year before the beginning of World War II, her parents had finally fled Germany to Great Britain , and Nazi Germany confiscated all their belongings (Reich Flight Tax); they had to leave behind. Her father died two years later, and her mother, penniless, was forced to sell the art collection, that had already been moved to neutral Switzerland in 1933, shortly after Hitler's ''{{lang|de|Machtergreifung}}''.<ref>The sale was executed by Theodor Fischer in Luzern. There was an accompanying catalogue, at least for the part Gisèle had inherited: {{cite book|title=Sammlung Julius Freund aus dem Besitz von Frau Dr. G. Freund, Buenos Aires: Gemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen und Druckgraphik |first=Gisèle |last=Freund | year=1942|publisher=Galerie Fischer |location=Luzern |oclc=1348860250}}</ref>

===Buenos Aires, Mexico, and Paris again=== In 1942, with the help of André Malraux, who told his friends, "we must save Gisèle!",<ref>Daley, Suzanne, "Gisele Freund Is Dead at 91; Photographed Paris Writers". ''The New York Times'', 1 April 2000.</ref> Freund fled to Buenos Aires, Argentina "at the invitation of Victoria Ocampo, director of the periodical ''Sur''. Ocampo was at the center of the Argentinean intellectual elite, and through her Freund met and photographed many great writers and artists, such as Jorge Luis Borges and Pablo Neruda."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |entry=Gisèle Freund |encyclopedia=Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women |date=31 December 1999 |last=Meeker |first=Carlene |entry-url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/freund-gisele |access-date=2022-12-06 |via=Jewish Women's Archive}}</ref>

While living in Argentina, Freund started a publishing venture called Ediciones Victoria, that would feature books on France. She writes, "in reality, I started this for the De Gaulle government in exile where I was working in the Information ministry, voluntarily, without payment."<ref>Letter to Verna B. Carleton, 7 January 1965. [published? where?...]</ref> She also founded a relief action committee for French artists and became a spokesperson for Free France. After the war she got back to Paris in 1946 with an exhibition on Latin America ready, and three tons of collected provisions for writers and journalists.

In 1947, Freund signed a contract with Magnum Photos as a Latin America contributor, but by 1954, she was declared ''persona non grata'' by the U.S. government at the height of the Red Scare for her socialist views, and Robert Capa forced her to break ties with Magnum, to save himself and David Seymour from investigations of the FBI. In 1950, her photo coverage of a bejewelled Evita Perón for ''Life'' magazine caused a diplomatic stir between the United States and Argentina and upset many of Perón's supporters—the ostentatious photographs went against the official party line of austerity; ''Life'' was blacklisted in Argentina, and once again, Freund had to escape a country with her negatives. She moved to Mexico and became friends with Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco.<ref>Stiftung Stadtmuseum Catalogue for "Gisele Freund: A Revisit to Berlin, 1957-1962" [?]</ref>

In 1953, she moved back to Paris permanently. Over the life of her career, she went on over 80 photojournalistic assignments for ''Life'' , ''Time'', ''The Sunday Times'', ''Picture Post'', ''Weekly Illustrated'', and the French ''Vu'', ''Paris Match'', ''Points de Vue'', and ''Arts et Décoration'', as well as the Swiss ''Du''. From the 1960s onward, Freund continued to write. The "continuation" of her dissertation, now called ''Photography & Society'', came out in 1974, written in French, and translated into German the same year.<ref>Her original dissertation had just been published in German for the first time in 1968.''Gespräche mit Rauda Jamis'', authorized German edition of the French original published 1991, co-edited by Freund, Schirmer/Mosel, München 1993, p. 190. Like some other specifically German dates, probably not listed in the French edition.</ref> The English translation followed in 1980. Further editions came out in Spanish (1976), Swedish (1977), Korean (1979), Italian (1980), Croatian (1981), Japanese (1986), Greek (1996), and Turkish (2007).<ref>{{cite web|title=Modified search: "Gisèle Freund", printed books, excluding fr/en/ge editions |url=https://www.worldcat.org/en/search?q=au%3D%22Freund%2C+Gise%CC%80le%22&itemSubType=book-printbook&itemSubTypeModified=book-printbook&author=Freund%2C+Gise%CC%80le%7CFreund%2C+Gisele&inLanguage=ita%2Ccat%2Ckor%2Ctur%2Cmul%2Cchi%2Cdut%2Cjpn%2Cara%2Cgre%2Chrv%2Cpol%2Cswe%2Cspa |access-date=11 November 2023 |website=Worldcat.org}}</ref> In 1977, she became president of the Fédération Française des Associations des Photographes Créateurs, the photographer's trade union, a position Henri Cartier-Bresson previously held.

The same year Germany saw her first retrospective curated by Klaus Honnef (de), who also accounted for her participation in the documenta 6. This edition of the important international exhibition for contemporary art, had a focus on photography and celebrated its 150-year anniversary with a large survey, in which pictures of Joyce and Evita Perón were featured in its portrait section.<ref>The documenta 6 had a huge role in the rising recognition of photography in the art world. {{cite book|title=150 Jahre Fotografie |last=Honnef |first=Klaus |publisher=Kunstforum |location=Mainz |year=1977 |pages=68–72|language=de}}</ref> In the 1970s she was also recognized in the US, in galleries at first, and it was a large exhibition of her works at the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York in 1979. It led to the acquisition of all 180 photographs on display by the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Her reputation as an important portrait photographer grew with each successive exhibition. She was celebrated as one of the best portrait photographers of the twentieth century: Upon her death in Paris, "President Jacques Chirac praised her as 'one of the world's greatest photographers'."<ref name="auto2">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/01/arts/gisele-freund-is-dead-at-91-photographed-paris-writers.html|title=Gisele Freund Is Dead at 91; Photographed Paris Writers|first=Suzanne|last=Daley|newspaper=The New York Times|date=1 April 2000|publisher=}}</ref>

She is buried at the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris near her home and studio at 12 rue Lalande.

thumb|right|Gisèle Freund, Paris 1974, photographed by Hans Puttnies

==Estate== Since 2011 Freund's principal estate is managed through l'Institut Mémoires de l'Édition Contemporaine (IMEC) in Paris and stored at Abbaye d'Ardenne, near Caen. The collection contains portraits and some series of journalistic photographs from France, Germany, England and Latin America, in total around 1600 black and white negatives with their contact sheets, 1200 color and black and white prints, 8200 slides (originals and duplicates) and approximately the same number of press prints. Besides the photographs the collection comprises manuscripts, notebooks, diaries, letters and documents pertaining to exhibitions and the management of her archive. Her library of about 2000 books and journals is also part of the collection.<ref>[https://www.imec-archives.com/archives/fonds/406FND The Fonds Gisèle Freund] at IMEC.</ref><ref>Yoann Thommerel, Lorraine Audric, "Ein lebendes Archiv: der Fonds Gisèle Freund im IMEC", in Frecot/Kostas 2014, p. 59f.</ref>

Since the end of 2022 the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt holds another part of her estate. Formerly in the hands of Hans Puttnies (1946–2020), who had closely worked with Gisèle Freund for over twenty years, the museum bought, with the financial help of the city, his collection of photographs, writings and other documents and belongings of her. It comprises 32 archive boxes with over 1.150 photographs spanning the years of 1927 to 1975, over half of them vintage prints, many never been shown publicly. Besides personal notes, address books and correspondences there are previously unreleased manuscripts, such as a typoscript of an unfinished autobiographical novel Freund wrote in Mexico between 1952–1954.

Hans Puttnies, professor of communication studies, author, photographer and film maker, became friends with Freund, after he wrote a review on a German edition of her original dissertation in 1968. Puttnies collaborated with her on several projects and provided essays for exhibition catalogues of her works. Over the years Freund had given him many photographs and he had photographed her. He was about to write Freund's biography but died before finishing it in 2020.<ref>{{cite web|title=Ankauf für das Jüdische Museum Frankfurt. Fotografien und Dokumente von Gisèle Freund |date=16 December 2022 |url=https://www.juedischesmuseum.de/museum/beitrag/detail/pm-gisele-freund/ |access-date=12 November 2023 |website=Jüdisches Museum Frankfurt}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Wer will schon ins Paradies? |last=Verena |first=Lueken |date=17 March 2021 |url=https://m.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/wer-will-schon-ins-paradies-erinnerungen-an-hans-puttnies-17244563.html |access-date=13 November 2023 |website=Frankfurter Allgemeine}}</ref>

==Notable work== Freund's dissertation was a seminal sociohistorical study on photography, first published in book form by Adrienne Monnier in 1936, and a revised version was published in the 1970s with translations in several languages. One of her best-known early photo works shows one of the last political street demonstrations in Germany before Hitler took power. In 1936 Freund photographed the effects of the depression in England for ''Life''. Freund became famous for her colour portraits of writers and artists, including Samuel Beckett, Virginia Woolf, George Bernard Shaw, Henry Matisse, Marcel Duchamp and many others.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://exhibits2.library.uvic.ca/spotlight/from-paris-to-victoria |title=Exhibit Home | from Paris to Victoria - Blacklight |access-date=17 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611163823/http://exhibits2.library.uvic.ca/spotlight/from-paris-to-victoria |archive-date=11 June 2016 }}</ref> In 1981, Freund made her (unretouched) official portrait of François Mitterrand, who was President of France (1981–1995).<ref>{{cite web |last=Ollier |first=Brigitte |title=Une figure de la photo. Célèbre pour ses portraits, Gisèle Freund est morte à 91 ans |url=https://www.liberation.fr/arts/2000/04/01/une-figure-de-la-photo-celebre-pour-ses-portraits-gisele-freund-est-morte-a-91-ans_323763/ |work=Libération |date=1 April 2000 |language=fr}}</ref><ref name="auto2"/>

In Freund's obituary for ''The New York Times'', Suzanne Daley writes, "[Freund] specialized in conveying the attitude of her subjects. She focused on hands, body posture and clothing. Reviewing an exhibition of her life's work in 1979, Hilton Kramer wrote in ''The New York Times'' that she excelled in 'brilliant documentation rather than originality.' In a 1996 interview, Ms. Freund said she read her subjects' work and often spent hours discussing their books with them before taking a portrait." Indeed, it was Freund's ability to connect with writers and artists—especially the famously difficult James Joyce—that gave her the ability to photograph them with their guard down.<ref name="auto2"/>

thumb|Gisèle Freund's gravestone at Montparnasse Graveyard, Paris

==Quotations== '''From ''Gisèle Freund, Photographer'' (1985)''' * "For a writer, his portrait is the only link he can establish with his readers. When we read a book whose content moves us, we are interested to look at the author's face, which is generally printed on the jacket since the publisher is aware of our wish to see if these features correspond to the idea we have formed of the author. This image is thus very important to the man of letters. He prefers a photographer in whom he can have confidence."

'''From ''Photography & Society''''' * "The lens, the so-called impartial eye, actually permits every possible distortion of reality: the character of the image is determined by the photographer's point of view and the demands of his patrons. The importance of photography does not rest primarily in its potential as an art form, but rather in its ability to shape our ideas, to influence our behaviour, and to define our society." (p. 4) * "In our technological age, when industry is always trying to create new needs, the photographic industry has expanded enormously because the photograph meets modem man's pressing need to express his own individuality." (p. 5) * Although the first inventor of photography, Nicéphore Niépce, tried desperately to have his invention recognized, his efforts were in vain and he died in misery. Few people know his name today. But photography, which he discovered, has become the most common language of our civilization." (p. 218) * "When you do not like human beings, you cannot make good portraits."

==Awards== * 1977 – Elected President of the trade union Fédération Française des Associations des Photographes Créateurs (France)<ref name="auto3"/> * 1977 – Guest of honor at the annual international festival ''Rencontres de la photographie d'Arles'' (France)<ref>{{cite web |title=Édition 1977 |website=Rencontres de la photographie d'Arles |url=https://www.rencontres-arles.com/en/editions/view/87/edition-1977/ |access-date=2023-11-11}}</ref> * 1978 – Cultural Prize of the German Society for Photography DGPh (Germany)<ref name="auto3"/> * 1980 – Grand Prix national de la photographie (France) * 1982 – Officier des Arts et Lettres (France) * 1983 – Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur (France) * 1987 – Officier de Mérite (France) * 1989 – Doctor honoris causa, National Museum of Photography at Bradford University (UK)<ref name="auto3">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/apr/01/guardianobituaries1|title=Gisele Freund|first=Amanda|last=Hopkinson|date=1 April 2000|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref>

==Exhibitions== [[File:Galerie château d'eau.jpg|thumb|Gisèle Freund (second at right) at the opening of her exhibition at Galerie municipale du Château d'Eau, Toulouse, March 1981 with (from left) Michel Tournier, Jean Dieuzaide, Michel Delaborde, unidentified woman. Photographed by Michel Dieuzaide]]

* 1939 – La Maison des Amis des Livres, Paris, France * 1942 – Galerie Amigos del Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina * 1945 – Palacio de Bellas Artes, Valparaiso Galeria de Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina * 1946 – Maison de l'Amérique latine, Paris, France * 1962 – Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, Petit Palais, France * 1963 – ''Le portrait francais au XXe siecle'' [French Portraiture in the 20th Century], Bibliothèque nationale de France, Cabinet des estampes, Paris, France & Berlin and Düsseldorf, Germany * 1964 – ''Ecrivains et artistes français et britanniques'', Institut Francais du Royaume-Uni, London, U.K. * 1965 – Princeton Art Museum, US * 1966 – Mona Bismarck American Center, Paris, France * 1968 – ''Au pays des visages, 1938–1968: trente ans d'art et de littérature à travers la caméra de Gisèle Freund'' [In the realm of faces: thirty years of art and literature through the lens of Gisèle Freund], Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris & Fondation Rayaumont, Asnieres-sur-Oise * 1973 – Musée Descartes, Amsterdam, Netherlands * 1975 – ''Giselle Freund'' [sic], Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York, US * 1976 – Focus Gallery, San Francisco, California, US * 1977 – ''Gisèle Freund: Fotografien 1932–1977'', Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Germany (first major retrospective, catalogue) :::– Documenta 6, Kassel, Germany :::– Musée Réattu, ''Rencontres de la photographie d'Arles'' , Arles, France :::– Fotoforum, Frankfurt, Germany :::– David Mirvich Gallery, Toronto, Canada * 1978 – Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan :::– Shadai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan :::– Marcus Krakow Gallery, Boston, US * 1979 – Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, US (catalogue) * 1980 – Galerie Agathe Gaillard, Paris, France :::– Galerie photo art basel (Anita Neugebauer), Basel, Switzerland * 1981 – Galerie municipale du Chateau d'Eau, Toulouse, France :::– Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona, US :::– Axiom Gallery, Sydney, Australia. * 1982 – Koplin Gallery, Los Angeles, US :::– The Photographers' Gallery, London * 1983 – Boston National Library[?], US :::– Center for Creative Art, New Orleans, US :::– Stanford University Museum of Art * 1984 – Fotoforum, Frankfurt, Germany * 1987 – Galerie zur Stockeregg, Zurich, Switzerland :::– ''Photographs of James Joyce and Friends'', Gotham Book Mart & Gallery, New York, US * 1988 – ''Gisèle Freund'', Werkbund-Archiv, Museum der Alltagskultur des 20. Jahrhunderts, Berlin, Germany (catalogue), and Vidéothèque de Paris, Paris * 1989 – ''Gisèle Freund: James Joyce, 1939'', Galerie de France, Paris, France<ref name="Archives Galerie de France">{{cite web |website=Archives Galerie de France, 1941–2021 |url=https://www.archivesgaleriedefrance.com/exhibitions/ |access-date=2023-11-11 |title=Archives Galerie de France }}</ref> :::– ''Gisèle Freund, James Joyce in Paris'', Galerie photo art basel, Basel, Switzerland * 1991 – ''Itinéraires'', retrospective, Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (catalogue) :::– Galerie photo art basel, Basel, Switzerland :::– ''Frida Kahlo et ses amis'', Galerie de France, Paris<ref name="Archives Galerie de France" /> * 1992 – Museum of Contemporary Art (Aguascalientes), Mexico City :::– ''Gisèle Freund: die Frau mit der Kamera. Fotografien 1929–1988'', Hammoniale - Festival der Frauen, BAT-Kunstfoyer, Hamburg. Selection of her photographs of women by Freund (catalogue) * 1993 – ''Gisèle Freund'', Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea * 1994 – Galerie Clairefontaine, Luxembourg :::– ''Reportagen'', Museum für Photographie, Braunschweig, Germany (catalogue) * 1995 – ''Fotografien zum 1. Mai 1932'', Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt, Germany (catalogue) * 1996 – ''Gisèle Freund, 1st International Congress of Writers for the Defence of Culture, Paris 1935'', Goethe Institute, Paris, France :::– ''Gesichter der Sprache''. Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany (catalogue) :::– ''Malraux sous le regard de Gisèle Freund'', Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France :::– Verso Gallery, Tokyo, Japan :::– Galerie Michiko Matsumoto, Tokyo, Japan :::– ''Gisèle Freund: Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris. Fotografien 1929–1962'', Berliner Festspiele, Berlin, Germany (catalogue) * 1999 – ''Adrienne Monnier, Saint-John Perse et les amis des livres'', Musée Municipal Saint-John Perse, Point-à-Pitre, and the Fondation Saint-John Perse, Aix-en-Provence, France * 2002–2004 – ''Gisèle Freund. El mundo y mi cámara'', travelling retrospective in Spain: Centre de Cultura Contemporanea, Barcelona, Museu Comarcal de la Garrotxa, Olot, Caja General de Ahorros de Granada, Fundació Sa Nostra in Palma de Mallorca, Fundación Municipal de Cultura, Valladolid (catalogue) * 2006 – ''Susana Soca and her circles seen by Gisèle Freund''. Maison de l'Amerique latine, Paris, France :::– Montevideo and Soca, Uruguay<ref>Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography, Volume 1.</ref> * 2008 – ''Gisèle Freund: ritratti d'autore, 1908–2008, cento anni dalla nascita'', Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan, Italy (catalogue) :::– ''Gisèle Freund – Photojournalism and Portraiture. Tribute to Gisèle Freund on Her 100th Anniversary'', Photomeetings Luxembourg, Galerie Clairefontaine (100 photographs from the collection of Marita Ruiter), and symposium and exhibition at the University of Luxembourg (catalogue) ::::– ''Gisèle Freund – Reportagen und Portraits zum 100. Geburtstag'', Willy-Brandt-Haus, Berlin (adopted from Luxembourg) :::– ''Gisèle Freund – Wiedersehen mit Berlin, 1957–1962'', Ephraim-Palais, Berlin, Germany<ref>{{cite web|title=Gisèle Freund Reframes Berlin, 1957–1962 |url=https://emop-berlin.eu/archive/emop-2010/en/2008/exhibitions/artists-in-alphabetic-order/ausstellung/gisele-freund-wiedersehen-mit-berlin-1958-1962.html |website=3. Europäischer Monat der Fotografie Berlin 2008 |access-date=2023-11-13 |publisher=European Month of Photography}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/01/08/arts/design/20090108_ABROAD_index/s/abroad1.html |title=Gisèle Freund in Berlin |newspaper=The New York Times |date=8 January 2009 |publisher=}}</ref> * 2011–2012 – ''Gisèle Freund: l'œil frontière'', Fondation Pierre Bergé–Yves Saint Laurent, Paris, France 1933-1940" (catalogue)<ref>[http://www.fondation-pb-ysl.net/en/Gisele_Freund_L_Oeil_frontiere-562.html Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent]</ref> * 2014 – ''From Paris to Victoria: Gisèle Freund's James Joyce Photographs'', University of Victoria, Canada * 2014 – ''Gisèle Freund: Photographische Szenen und Porträts''. Academy of Arts, Berlin, Germany<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140529052148/http://www.museumsportal-berlin.de/en/exhibitions/gisele-freund/ Berlin, Academy of Arts]</ref> (catalogue) * 2015 – ''Frida Kahlo: Mirror, Mirror'', Throckmorton Fine Art, New York, US<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/style/frida-kahlo-is-having-a-moment.html Throckmorton Fine Art, New York]</ref> * 2018 – ''Gisèle Freund – Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera'', Galerie Clairefontaine, Luxembourg (catalogue) ; Galleria Guidi & Schoen, Genoa, Italy; FLATZ Museum, Dornbirn, Austria * 2022 – ''Gisèle Freund – Ce sud si lointain. Photographies d'Amérique latine'', Maison de l'Amérique latine, Paris, France

==Books by Gisèle Freund== Even for publications without texts of her own, especially exhibition catalogues, Freund's collaboration was essential. Original editions followed by translations into other languages are listed, as long as no English translation was published. * ''La photographie en France au dix-neuvième siècle'' [French Photography in the 19th Century], dissertation, La Maison des Amis des Livres, Paris1936. {{OCLC|459756792}}. ** Spanish ed.: ''La fotografía y las clases medias en Francia durante el siglo 19 ensayo de sociologia y de estética'', Ed. Losada, Buenos Aires 1946. {{OCLC|723790301}}. ** German ed.: ''Photographie und bürgerliche Gesellschaft. Eine kunstsoziologische Studie'', preface by H. P. Gente, Rogner & Bernhard (Passagen), München 1968. ** French re-ed.: André Gunthert (ed.), Christian Bourgois/Seuil (Points), 2011, ISBN 9782267022650. * ''France'', 1945. * ''Guía de arquitectura mexicana contemporánea'' [Guide to Contemporary Mexican Architecture], Carlos Lazo [and/or] Richard Grove, Congreso Panamericano de Arquitectos, Espacios, Mexico City 1952. {{OCLC|253089502}}. * ''Mexique précolombien'' [Pre-Columbian Mexico], text by Paul Rivet, Editions Ides et Calendes, Neuchatel 1954. {{OCLC|899221495}}. ** German ed.: ''Alt-Mexiko'', Reich, München 1954. {{OCLC|265428042}}. * ''James Joyce in Paris: His Final Years'', foreword by Simone de Beauvoir, text by Verna B. Carleton, Harcourt, Brace & World, New York 1965, ISBN 1111804478. [https://archive.org/details/jamesjoyceinpari0000freu/page/n5/mode/2up Archive-url]. * ''Au pays des visages, 1938–1968: Trente ans d'art et de littérature à travers la caméra de Gisèle Freund'', Freund with Pierre Gaudibert, Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1968, w/o ISBN. * ''Le monde et ma camera'', memoir, Denoël, Paris 1970, ISBN 9782207257920 (2006 ed.). ** English ed.: ''The World and My Camera'', The Dial Press, New York 1974, ISBN 080379732X. * ''Photographie et societé'', revised and expanded edition of her dissertation, Seuil (Coll. Points), Paris 1974, ISBN 202000660X. ** English ed., US: ''Photography & Society'', David R. Godine, Boston 1980, ISBN 0879232501, ** English ed., UK: Gordon Fraser, London 1980, ISBN 0860920496. * ''Memoires de l'œil'' [Memories of the Eye], Seuil, Paris 1977, ISBN 2020046474. (Also published in German the same year.) * ''Portfolio: Au pays des visages'' [In the Landscape of Faces], ed. of 36 signed copies with ten portraits, Lunn Gallery/Graphics International, 1978. * ''Trois jours avec Joyce'' , Denoël, Paris 1982, ISBN 2207228061. ** English ed., US: ''Three Days with Joyce'', Persea, New York 1985, ISBN 9780892550968. [https://archive.org/details/threedayswithjoy00freu Archive-url]. ** English ed., Europe: Van Gennep, Amsterdam 1985, ISBN 9060126637. * ''Gisèle Freund, Photographien (und Erinnerungen)'', with autobiographical texts, foreword by Christian Caujolle, Schirmer/Mosel, Munich, ISBN 3888141605. ** French ed.: ''Itinéraires'', Albin Michel, Paris 1985, ISBN 9782226024718. ** English ed.: ''Gisèle Freund, Photographer'', Abrams, New York 1985, ISBN 9780810909397. * ''Gisèle Freund. Poetry of the Portrait: Photographs of Writers and Artists'', Engl. ed. by Roger W. Benner, preface by Freund, Schirmer Art Books (Masters of the Camera), Munich 1989, ISBN 9783888148903. * ''Gisèle Freund: itinéraires. Catalogue de l'œuvre photographique'', Musée national d'art moderne, ed. by Alain Sayag, complete catalogue by Hans Puttnies, Ed. Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1991, ISBN 9782858506460. * ''Gisèle Freund, Portrait. Entretiens avec Rauda Jamis'' , interviews with Rauda Jamis, Des Femmes, Paris 1991, ISBN 9782721004222. (Also published in German, 1993).

==Books on Gisèle Freund== * {{cite book|title=Gisèle Freund: Fotografien 1932–1977 |last=Honnef |first=Klaus |publisher=Rheinisches Landesmuseum |location=Bonn |year=1977 |language=de}} * {{cite book|title=Gisèle Freund|first=Hans Joachim|last=Neyer|year=1988 |publisher=Argon, Museumspädagogischer Dienst |location=Berlin |language=de |oclc= 21045272}}  * {{cite book|title=Gisèle Freund: die Frau mit der Kamera. Fotografien 1929–1988 |trans-title=The woman with the camera |first=Hans |last=Puttnies |year=1992 |editor=Hammoniale - Festival der Frauen, BAT-Kunstfoyer |publisher=Schirmer/Mosel |location=München |language=de|oclc= 21045272}} * {{cite magazine |date= March 1993 |title=Fotografin Gisèle Freund. Der Archipel der Erinnerung |trans-title=The archipel of memory |language=de |magazine=Du |issue=3 |location=Zürich |publisher=TA-Media}} * {{cite book|title=You Have Seen Their Faces: Gisèle Freund, Walter Benjamin and Margaret Bourke-White as headhunters of the thirties|first=M. Kay|last=Flavell|year=1994 |location=Berkeley |publisher=University of California, Center for German and European Studies|oclc= 32087994}} * {{cite book|title=Gesichter der Sprache. Schriftsteller um Adrienne Monnier. Fotografien zwischen 1935 und 1940 von Gisèle Freund |trans-title=Faces of Language |first1=Irene |last1=Neyer-Schoop |first2=Thomas |last2=Weski |publisher=Sprengel Museum |location=Hannover |year=1996 |language=de |isbn=978-3-89169-107-6}} * {{cite book|title=Gisèle Freund: Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris. Fotografien 1929–1962 |first1=Marita |last1=Braun-Ruiter |publisher=Berliner Festspiele |location=Berlin |year=1996 |language=de }} * {{cite book|title=Gisèle Freund: ritratti d'autore |trans-title=Portraits of writers |first1=Elisabeth |last1=Perolini |first2=Grazia |last2=Neri |year=2007 |publisher=Silvana |language=it |isbn=9788836609857 |oclc=190838214}} * {{cite book|title=Gisèle Freund. Ein Leben |first1=Bettina de |last1=Cosnac |publisher=Arche |location=Zürich |year=2008 |language=de |isbn=9783716023822}} * {{cite book|title=Gisèle Freund. El mundo y mi cámara/The World and My Camera |year=2008 |publisher=Ariel |location=Madrid |language=es, en |isbn=9788434452404}} (Original edition in Catalan) * {{cite book|title=Gisèle Freund – Photojournalism and Portraiture. Tribute to Gisèle Freund on Her 100th Anniversary |first1=Marita |last1=Ruiter |year=2008 |publisher=Ed. Clairefontaine |location=Luxembourg |isbn=978-2-919881-27-7}} * {{cite book|title=Gisèle Freund: l'oeil frontière, Paris 1933–1940 |trans-title=The eye at the border (?) |first1=Olivier |last1=Corpet |first2=Catherine |last2=Thiek |year=2011|publisher=Réunion des musées nationaux, Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent |location=Paris |language=fr |isbn=978-2-7118-5924-5 |oclc = 770222870}} * {{cite book|title=Les carnets de Gisèle Freund |trans-title=The notebooks |year=2013 |publisher=Réunion des musées nationaux, Petit Palais |location=Paris |language=fr |isbn=978-2-7118-5925-2}} * {{cite book|title=Gisèle Freund: Photographische Szenen und Porträts |first1=Janos |last1=Frecot |first2=Gabriele |last2=Kostas |publisher=Nicolai |location=Berlin |year=2014 |language=de |isbn=9783894798482}} * {{cite book|title=Frida Kahlo. The Gisèle Freund Photographs |first=Gerard de |last=Cortanze |year=2015 |publisher=Abrams |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4197-1423-8}}<ref>{{cite web | url=http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/03/rare-photos-of-frida-kahlo-from-her-last-years.html | title=Rare Photos of Frida Kahlo from the Last Years of Her Life | date=29 March 2015 }}</ref>

==Film and television== The 1996 documentary ''Paris Was a Woman'' features interviews with Gisèle Freund as she recollects her experiences in Paris during the 1930s.

1979 ''Zeugen des Jahrhunderts: Gisèle Freund'' [Witnesses of the Century].

2019 ''Gisèle Freund, portrait intime d'une photographe visionnaire'', Director Teri Wehn-Damisch.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freund, Gisele}} Category:1908 births Category:2000 deaths Category:Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to France Category:Emigrants from Nazi Germany to France Category:20th-century French women photographers Category:20th-century French photographers