Jeanne Mandello

Jeanne Mandello (née Johanna Mandello; 18 October 1907, Frankfurt – 17 December 2001, Barcelona) was a German modern artist and experimental photographer.

Early years and education Mandello grew up in an art-loving, secular Jewish family in Frankfurt. Her mother, Amalia Margarethe Mandello, born Seligsohn, was a kindergarten teacher and died when Johanna was 14 years old; her father, Hermann Mandello, was until 1934 Director of the department store Kaufhaus Wronker. She graduated from high school in 1925. The following year, she began studying photography at Lette-Verein. In a time when it was difficult for a woman to get attention as an artist, photography opened a way into the art world. Inspired by the spirit of freedom in Berlin in the 1920s, the women's movement offered an opportunity to go out, attended theater performances, concerts, exhibitions and decide on the model of the "new woman", imitating Grete Stern and Ellen Auerbach who wore pants and short hair. In 1927, she studied at the studio of and Alfred Tritschler. Through Wolff, she became familiar with Leica Camera photography. Back in Berlin, she returned to Lette and finished her studies. Using a Leica film camera, she photographed portraits, landscapes and scenes of everyday life. In 1929, she taught in Frankfurt, creating a studio at her parents' house. Here, she collaborated with the photographer Nathalie Reuter (1911–1990), a former classmate and friend. In 1932, she met Arno Grünebaum. Under Mandello's guidance, he learned photography. In 1933, they married. Being Jewish and being aware of the coming danger, they left Germany in 1934 and began in Paris a new life.

Selected works and exhibitions 1943: Exposición del Niño. Fotografías artísticas de la Señora Jeanne Mandello, Montevideo 1952: Mandello (Jeanne Mandello und Arno Grünebaum), Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro 1995: Les dones fotògrafes a la República de Weimar. 1919–1933, Fundación “La Caixa”, Barcelona 1997: Mandello. Fotografías 1928–1997. Retrospektive zum 90. Geburtstag von Jeanne Mandello. Sala de Exposiciones del Casal de Sarrià y Sala de Exposiciones del FAD (Foment de les Arts Decoratives), Barcelona Ausstellungskatalog: Mercedes Valdivieso (Hrsg.): Mandello. Fotografías 1928–1997, Casal de Sarria, Barcelona 1997. 2012/2013: Imágenes de una fotógrafa exiliada: Jeanne Mandello, Alliance Française, Montevideo u. a. Ausstellungskatalog: Imágenes de una fotógrafa exiliada: Jeanne Mandello, Centro Cultural Alliance Française, Montevideo 2012. Einführung: Sandra Nagel (pdf). 2014: Ende eines Zeitalters. Künstlerische Praktiken und Techniken analoger Fotografie, Museum Folkwang, Essen 2015: Solarized, Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York 2018: De l’autre côté. Photographies de Jeanne Mandello, Hildegard Rosenthal et Grete Stern. Maison de l’Amérique latine, Paris.