"Assia"

gelatin silver print

signed, titled, dated (pencil) and artist stamp on verso

Roger Schall was one of the pioneers of French reportage photography and was stylistically closely associated with La Nouvelle Vision (The New Vision). In this image, we encounter one of the most fascinating artist models of the interwar period in Paris: Assia Granatouroff (1911–1982), a Russian-born muse to numerous modernist photographers, including Brassaï, Dora Maar, Moï Ver, Éli Lotar, and Roger Schall himself.
In numerous works with Assia, Schall sought to translate his idea of New Vision into photography. In this iconic photograph taken in 1933, he not only shows her as a nude model, but also creates a symbol of the new conception of the body that emerged at the intersection of the artistic avant-garde, fashion, and photography.
The female body appears both sculptural and alive. The light models Assia's silhouette as a reminiscence of classical formal language, but broken by a modern, image-filling cropping. The shadow of a stranger's hand brings a playful component of eroticism and desire into the picture—a symbol of the changing view of physicality and nudity.
The photograph Assia is thus much more than a nude portrait. It is an image of an era, of the vibrant Paris of the 1930s, in which photography became an art form and the female body became the vehicle of cultural change.
(Christoph Fuchs, translated by deepL)