Marianne Breslauer’s career as a photographer in Berlin in the Weimer Republic was cut short with the advent of World War 2, and in fact only lasted from 1927 -1938.  Being Jewish she had trouble getting her work published in Germany so she emigrated to Amsterdam as the Nazis were gaining power, and then moved to Zurich  for safety with her art-dealer husband when war broke out.

Bresaluer’s work was particularly striking because she photographed sleek, chic and gender-bending women  dressed androgynously, and some of her best work were portraits of her close friend of the Swiss writer, journalist and photographer Annemarie Schwarzenbach,  She described Annemarie (who died in 1942 at the young age of 34) as: “Neither a woman nor a man, but an angel, an archangel”. 

Marianne Breslauer. Photographs 1927-1938 

Exhibition at Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona until 01/27

http://museunacional.cat/en/marianne-breslauer-photographs-1927-1938

Marianne Breslauer: Photographs by Christina Feilchenfeldt and Kathrin Beer at Amazon