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Margaret Watkins
Self-Portrait, Paris
1931
Gelatin silver print, contact print
3¢ x 2 7/8in. (8.9 x 7.3 cm)
Christie's - London
Courtesy of Christies, London (Sale: 7434 - Photographs, Lot: 50 - Nov 13, 2007)
LL/24271
Annotated 'A' in pencil, stamped '180' on verso
This print is reproduced in Stourdzé, Regard Captif: Collection Ord¾±ez-Falc¾n, Léo Scheer, 2002, p.92; O'Connor & Tweedie, Seduced by Modernity: The Photography of Margaret Watkins, McGill-Queen's University, 2007, p.169 & cover (fig.1).
San Sebastißn, Spain, Sala de Exposiciones Koldo Mitxelena, La Distancia Crİtica (Colecci¾n Ord¾±ez-Falc¾n de Fotografİa), 17 February - 18 April 1998; Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Fundaci¾n Juan March, Rostros y Mßscaras (Fotografİas de la Colecci¾n Ord¾±ez-Falc¾n), 3 March - 28 May 2006.
Canadian-born Watkins left her homeland in 1911 to study at the Clarence White School of Photography in New York, where she was eventually invited to join the faculty alongside Max Weber and Alfred Stieglitz. In the 1920s, Watkins established a studio in Greenwich Village and worked for Macy's Department Store and the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency, enjoying commerical success with her simple and clear modernist vision, quite rare in advertising photography at the time.
Watkins's keen eye for inventive composition is shown here in a self-portrait, taken in the headlight of a car in the Place Vend¶me, Paris.
This print is enhanced by Watkins's own graphite hand-work, adding detail to the top of the tower in the background.
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