Summer | Photos by Martin Munkacsi, 1920-44

Martin Munkacsi, 1929                                              Martin Munkacsi, Erika Fiedler in the Reeds, 1934

Martin Munkacsi, 1929                                                    Martin Munkacsi, 1929

Martin Munkacsi, Greta Garbo, 1932                                                    Martin Munkacsi, Bathing Beauties, Berlin, 1929

Martin Munkacsi, Dans l’Air. 1935

Martin Munkácsi ( 1896 – 1963) was a Hungarian photographer who worked in Germany (1928–34) and the United States.

In 1932, the young Henri Cartier-Bresson, at the time an undirected photographer who catalogued his travels and his friends, saw the Munkácsi photograph Three Boys at Lake Tanganyika, taken on a beach in Liberia. Cartier-Bresson later said:

< Martin Munkacsi, Boys running into the surf at Lake Tanganyika, Liberia, 1930

Martin Munkacsi, Boy on the beach, 1930 >

"For me this photograph was the spark that ignited my enthusiasm. I suddenly realized that, by capturing the moment, photography was able to achieve eternity. It is the only photograph to have influenced me. This picture has such intensity, such joie de vivre, such a sense of wonder that it continues to fascinate me to this day." He paraphrased this many times during his life, including the quotation, "I suddenly understood that photography can fix eternity in a moment. It is the only photo that influenced me. There is such intensity in this image, such spontaneity, such joie de vivre, such miraculousness, that even today it still bowls me over." 

Richard Avedon said of Munkácsi,

"He brought a taste for happiness and honesty and a love of women to what was, before him, a joyless, loveless, lying art. Today the world of what is called fashion is peopled with Munkácsi's babies, his heirs.... The art of Munkácsi lay in what he wanted life to be, and he wanted it to be splendid. And it was."

< Martin Munkacsi, Nude in Straw Hat, 1944 


Martin Munkacsi, Healthy bodies, Harper's Bazaar, 1935 >

Martin Munkacsi, Nude with parasol, 1935

Martin Munkacsi, Woman in Rowboat, 1928

Martin Munkácsi, Nice, 1930                             Martin Munkacsi, Seashore Before the Thunderstorm, 1930

Martin Munkacsi, 1929                                                        Martin Munkacsi, 1930-39

 Martin Munkacsi, 1920-29

Martin Munkacsi, Olivia de Havilland, 1936                                           Martin Munkacsi, Silver white satin beach costume, 1933

Martin Munkacsi, Margo on holiday, 1934                                              Martin Munkacsi, On the beach, 1935

Summer camp near Bad-Kissingen, Germany, 1929                                           Martin Munkacsi, Bathers, Margit Island, Budapest, 1928

Martin Munkacsi, photographing for Harper’s Bazaar in Long Island, taking an angle shot of a diver, 1935

Martin Munkacsi, Wannsee , 1931

  Martin Munkacsi, Woman on Boat, 1930 - 39

  Martin Munkacsi, Neger am Strand, 1930

Martin Munkácsi, 1930 - 39                                                 Martin Munkacsi, Caught by a wave, 1930

 Martin Munkacsi, Movable lifeguard tower, Germany, 1929