The avant-garde artist Florence Henri who paved the way for modern-day photography, now has her works exhibited at the Jeu de Paume museum. After initially studying painting at the Academie Moderne in Paris, Henri discovered a love for photography and its untapped artistic potential. In her work, Henri experiments with shapes, space and reflections all the while maintaining the signature elegance of the art-deco decade.
Florence Henri was a pioneer for what is now commonplace in modern day photography, some of her most renowned images are the auto-portraits, their abstract compositions and mirroring perspectives indirectly leading to the modern-day selfie. As with her self-portraits, the subjects of her portraits were often tightly framed and harshly lit, giving a strongly highlighted and texturized effect to the model’s features. In all of her photography there is a distinguishing control of composition.
While nowadays we are surrounded by wonderful female photographers that present the female nude in an empowering and spiritual way (take the recent Pheromone Hotbox exhibition as an example), Florence Henri was one of the first female photographers to take ownership of the female body, no longer making it the prerogative of the male photographer.
The exhibition at the Jeu de Baume museum offers an extensive collection of the works of Florence Henri, including rarely seen landscape shots and still-life collages. The collection is available for your exploration until the 25th of May 2015.
