Inge Morath: the first woman to join Magnum agency as a full member

and her masterful photographies of anonymous passengers passing by

Jan 05, 2025

Hi there, my friends,

How are you all doing? I hope you had an amazing entrance to the new year and that you’re looking forward to another year filled with letters from The Attic.

We kickstart 2025 with the work of an Austrian photographer, a super cute ad of ink for your pen, an Italian event and another cool UPA short.

Does this sound interesting? Then scroll down, we’re starting!

✧A photographer: Inge Morath✧

You may already know I love photography and that I love looking at old pictures. So today I’ll present to you the amazing work of Inge Morath.

Inge Morath (1923 - 1992) was born in Graz, Austria, in 1923, where she grew up in the shadow of Nazi Germany.

Her first encounter with avant-garde art was in 1937 at the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition organized by the Nazi Party in Munich which aimed to inflame public opinion against modern art. For young Morath, the exhibition had quite the opposite effect.

“I found a number of these paintings exciting and fell in love with Franz Marc’s Blue Horse. Only negative comments were allowed, and thus began a long period of keeping silent and concealing thoughts.”

Inge MORATH - 1957 - A Llama in Times Square, USA

In 1945, a Russian air raid forced Morath to flee Germany by foot. She had moved to Berlin to study linguistics, but was drafted to work at a munitions factory alongside Ukrainian prisoners of war. After the war, she worked as a translator and journalist.

In 1948, she was hired as an editor for Heute, an Information Service Branch publication based in Munich, where she wrote articles to accompany photographer Ernst Haas' pictures.

Inge MORATH - ca. 1950s - Vendedora de pescado, Barcelona

Inge MORATH - 1960 - 6PM, after hours at a segregated lunch counter, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

A year later, Morath and Haas were invited by Robert Capa to join the newly founded Magnum Photos in Paris, where she started as an editor. In addition to the many languages in which she was fluent (German, French, English, Romanian, Mandarin, Spanish and Russian), Morath was also a prolific diary and letter-writer; her dual gift for words and pictures made her unusual among her colleagues.

Inge MORATH - 1978 - Chang An Avenue, Beijing, China

Morath wouldn’t become a photographer until 1951, but when she did, she refused to photograph war “Her experience of the tremendous ugliness of what human beings can do to each other marked her for the rest of her life,” says her daughter Rebecca Miller. “It also made her really appreciate what art can do, which is sort of to make sense of life, to find coherence in an image that seems chaotic.”

She joined Magnum Photos as a photographer in 1953 where Morath also assisted Henri Cartier-Bresson during 1953–1954.

"I think that in studying his way of photographing I learned how to photograph myself, before I ever took a camera into my hand.”

She finally became a full Magnum member in 1955, being the first woman to do so.

In the following years, Morath traveled extensively in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. She became known as a sensitive, clever and elegant image-maker.

Inge MORATH - 1960 - Set of "The Misfits". Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller in their suite in Reno’s Mapes Hotel after a day’s shooting. Reno, Nevada. USA

Some of Morath's most notable achievements are in portraiture which included posed images of celebrities as well as images of candids of anonymous passersby. These pictures of anonymous people are my favourites.

Inge MORATH - 1954 - Fiestas de San Fermín, Pamplona // 1955 // 1987 - Dancer's skirt, Feria de Sevilla

Inge MORATH - 1955 - Siesta of a lottery vendor, Plaza Mayor, Madrid

She was also one of the pioneer photographers to start using color, here are some of her first shots, which I absolutely love. Morath’s work is just so beautiful.

Inge MORATH - 1955 - Dancing during Romería de El Rocío, Sevilla, Spain

Inge MORATH - 1954 - Gypsy family in County Kerry. Killorglin, Ireland // 1955 - Young girl on horseback during Romería de el Rocío. Andalusia, Spain // 1960 - Outside Memphis, Tennessee // 1954 - Street corner at World's End, London

✧An ad: Candido✧

I couldn’t find the author of this poster, but I just love the softness and shapes of it. It’s so cute.

✧An event: Coppa la Rinascente✧

Max HUBER - 1955 - Coppa la Rinascente Upim

✧An short: Fudget’s Budget✧

Here’s another UPA short with a super cool look, love the animation and simplicity.

We’ve reached the end of this letter and I hope you have found something inspiring in it :) I’ll see you in a few weeks with another dose of inspiring snippets ready to be discovered.

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