Florence Henri, Paris

Lucia Moholy, wife of László Moholy-Nagy, was the most important woman photographer at the Bauhaus during the 1920s, and her example influenced several other young women there to experiment with the medium.  She is best known for her portraits, such as this one of her student Florence Henri, which she described as related to her architectural and product photography in their rigorously objective approach. Moholy would typically take headshots of her subjects from several different angles-strictly frontal, profile, obliquely from above, and three-quarter view-against plain backgrounds, in this case perfectly capturing the graphic contours of Henri's black cap of hair and white powdered face.