Florence Henri: the forgotten female pioneer of surreal photography
Florence Henri was a pioneering surrealist artist, photographer, painter, and pianist. She was born in 1893 in New York, USA, and passed away in 1982 in Compiègne, France. Most of her works were created during the late 1920s to the early 1940s.
Henri moved to Berlin in 1912 and worked as an accompanist for silent films. After encountering Berlin’s avant-garde artists, she shifted her interest from music to painting, and she began studying painting in Berlin in 1914. In 1924, France denied Henri’s entry, and she became stateless. Therefore, she married a Swiss domestic servant and moved to Paris in 1925 to study painting in the art studio of cubism.
The artwork uses gouache on cut-and-pasted paper, ink, and pencil on paper. It is a typical painting influenced by Constructivism (1915–1930) (The Art Story, 2012). It uses cut paper to create contrasting red and blue colours and outlines with ink and pencil. Although the blue area is the largest, the eye-catching red draws the viewer’s attention. Objects overlap, creating layers.
Henri was in Berlin learning painting during 1914–1923, (Blumberg, 2022). This abstract painting represents a structure with components that influence each other. The circles resemble gears or wheels, relating to mechanical structures. The five lines at the bottom evoke a musical staff. This aligns with Constructivist artist Kandinsky’s concept of expressing music through painting (Roy Donald McMullen, 2018). The blue is calm and dominant, like a cello, while the red is small yet bright, like a trumpet. The overall composition forms a triangle.
In 1927, Henri arrived at the Bauhaus as a guest student, where she learned structuralism from Paul Klee and Vasily Kandinsky. Her painting style was also abstract at that time. Her teacher, László Moholy-Nagy, introduced photography to her and encouraged her to experiment. After 1928, Henri almost abandoned painting and turned to develop photography.
This black and white photo was created during the Gelatin silver print period (Florence Henri | Self-Portrait (1928) | Artsy, n.d.). Although color photographs were invented in 1861, they did not become popular until 1936 by Kodak (A Brief History of Color Photography, 2019). The photo is taken at a tilted angle to avoid the photographer and emphasize the reflection of the metal balls. The woman’s dark clothes contrast with the metal balls (A Brief History of Color Photography, 2019).
The two metal balls in front of the mirror correspond to parts of the body, with strong sexual implications (Meet Florence Henri, the Under-Acknowledged Queen of Surrealist Photography, 2015). The reflected wooden floor seems like an extended skirt.
This is possibly one of Henri’s most famous works. After studying photography at Bauhaus in 1927, Henri returned to Paris the following year and created many representative works. Mirrors and metal balls became her signature elements. (Meet Florence Henri, One of Photography’s Unsung Influencers, n.d.).
Henri used various techniques in her photography, including constructivism, explorations of cubist painting, and photomontage. She carefully arranged the composition of her images to create a balance of volume, lines, shadows, and light. With mirrors, she created reflections and spatial relationships that challenged the perception of reality. Through the use of mirrors, she created multifaceted self-portraits.
“Photographic practice enters a new stage”
The avant-garde journal i10 published Henri’s photographic experiments in issue 17/18 in December 1928, accompanied by a commentary from Moholy-Nagy.
This photo uses round balls and iron rings, maybe inspired by the Bauhaus metal workshop. The composition has a slightly tilted angle, adding interest and showing reflections from different angles. Elements and angles in the photo are influenced by constructivism. There is tension between two balls, two iron rings, and two mirrors.
In the photo, the drawing board occupies more than half of the space, becoming the main subject. Florence takes up only a small part of the image, changing the focus of the photo. This photo was published in the avant-garde magazine i10. Compared to the other two photos, the visual impact is more dispersed (James-Chakraborty & Kriebel, 2022).
Henri was overshadowed by male artists, such as her teacher, László Moholy-Nagy, and other artists in the same period, such as Man Ray and Herbert Bayer. Additionally, her experimental style was called “degenerate” during World War 2, which made her return to painting, and her work was ignored until feminist activists revived interest in it in the 1970s.
This photograph uses a montage technique, displacing objects through the mirror and creating a triangular composition. Based on the title, She uses reflections from mirrors to present traditional still-life paintings. The photograph has a very surreal atmosphere, using ordinary objects to elaborate on philosophical concepts. This series of photos is both abstract and thought-provoking.
In conclusion, Florence Henri was a pioneering surrealist artist who experimented with different techniques to create unique photographic works. Although she was overshadowed by male artists in her time, she is now recognized as one of the pioneers of surrealist photography.
Author: Hao Wei Tu
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