Artist Blog

Every week an artist whose single image was published by Der Greif is given a platform in which to blog about contemporary photography.

The female mannequin »La Poupée« became a lifetime obsession of Hans Bellmer. Born 1902 in Katowice Poland, he began working and photographing the doll in 1933. He began by photographing different stages of the creation process – from a wooden skeleton with metal parts to it´s final form. He was able to dismember, reassemble and reconfigure it using a system of ball joints. 1933 was also the same year Hitler rose to power in Germany. It is believed that Bellmer protested against the ideals and social norms propagated by the Nazis. Bellmer himself is quoted saying, “If the origin of my work is scandalous, it is because for me, the world is a scandal.”