untitled

gelatin silver print, toned on cardboard

signed recto (“LH”), signed (“Lotte Herrlich”) on cardboard

Lotte Herrlich was a German photographer who made a name for herself in the 1920s, particularly with her photographs of the fledgling naturist movement. The self-taught photographer took her first pictures after the birth of her son, continued her education and found her way to nude photography via landscape photography and portrait studies. Her pictures have been used in magazines published by various publishers, in particular Lichtkampf-Verlag and Verlag für Schönheit. She also published numerous books on the subject of nude photography and naturism.¹
“[...] and when I had also penetrated the secrets of pictorial landscape photography and had achieved some small successes, I ventured into the highest and most difficult: the nude. My very first attempts, the semi-silhouettes of flute blowers and vanity, were awarded 'The Beauty'. Others followed and soon I was able to publish three portfolios of nudes and three series of postcards with children's nudes [...] first and foremost, it is the figure of the mature person in its many-sided interesting beauty that inspires me to more serious work [...] I have never lacked models for this, I have been met with a great deal of trust, and strangely enough, especially in educated, distinguished circles, far more than from the professional models, whom I was soon able to eliminate completely [... Even though it is not always easy not to repeat myself in poses and lighting, especially as I do not have a studio but am confined to two small rooms for most of the year, I will never tire of portraying the lovely, chaste grace of a girl's body and the powerful, interesting beauty of a muscular man's body with the help of my camera. “², wrote Lotte Herrlich to Richard A. Giesecke, the editor of the magazine “Die Schönheit” in 1921
“Die Schönheit - mit Bildern geschmückte Zeitschrift für Kunst und Leben” was a German monthly magazine that was published by the eponymous Verlag der Schönheit from 1902. The magazine was lavishly designed, produced on art paper and offered the first “nude culture” photographic nudes. From 1914, the Dresden publisher Richard A. Giesecke was the editor and shifted the magazine to the right-wing spectrum of life reform. Articles, short essays, novellas, stories and poems appeared, interspersed with numerous photographic nudes. For fear of professional disadvantages, a conspicuous number of authors and photographers used a pseudonym. For example, the photographer Franz Fiedler published under the pseudonym F. Relief.
Treatises on former and contemporary beauty cultures appeared on topics such as body hygiene, physical training and nudity, while political or economic issues were not considered. However, the topics of youth, art and literature revealed the first racial-hygienic views on nudity and beauty, which resulted in perfect bodies. One of the last issues appeared in 1932 with the lead story “Healthy woman - healthy people!”³
(Christoph Fuchs)

Notes

1
see wikipedia, Lotte Herrlich (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotte_Herrlich, accessed 4.10.2024)

2
FKK Museum, online (https://www.michis-seiten.de/seite080.html, accessed 4.10.2024)

3
see wikipedia, Die Schönheit (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Sch%C3%B6nheit, accessed 4.10.2024)