Ina Bandy (born Ida Gurevitsch, 14 October 1903 – 1973) was a humanist photographer. Specialising in photographs of children, her work is held in the French National Archives and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.[1]

Biography

Bandy was born Ida Gurevitsch to a relatively non-religious Jewish family in Tallinn, Estonia, then a part of the Russian Empire.[2] Her family escaped to Moscow at the outbreak of war in 1914, but the Revolution of 1917 nevertheless claimed the life of one of her brothers.[3]

In the early 1920s, Bandy remained in Moscow while her mother accompanied her youngest brother Benjamin to Germany. At this time, Bandy met Nicolas Neumann (alias Nicolas Bandy), a Hungarian photographer who mentored her in photography. They married in 1925 but were to divorce later – even so, Ina Bandy would keep her pseudonym, moving to Germany before settling in France during the early 1930s. In Paris, she became a member of Alliance Photo, a photographic agency founded by René Zuber and directed by Maria Eisner, but she would cross into the zone libre at the outbreak of World War II.[1]

After World War II, Bandy went back to Paris and moved into the Hotel de Paix, where she set up her workshop on the ground floor.[3]

She produced photographic commissions for various newspapers and magazines such as ELLE, Médecine de France and Art News. While photographing a group of children living at a Paris Metro station for the Combat newspaper, Bandy met Robert Ardouvin, founder of ‘Les Amis des Enfants de Paris’. From 1948 the association housed underprivileged children in a village in Vercheny[4] and Bandy helped to photograph these children, remaining attached to the ‘Village D’Enfants’ until her death in 1973.[5]

In 1948, Ina Bandy also became a member of Le Groupe des XV, putting her in the company of other humanist photographers such as Willy Ronis and Sabine Weiss.[3][6]

Bandy also worked for organisations such as UNESCO, Air France, the French National Archives and the Louvre.[3] Her friendship with Régine Pernoud, a French medieval historian, would also lead her to take photographs of seals, medals, and medieval churches.[3]

Collections, exhibitions and published work

Collections

A collection of Bandy's photographs are held at the BnF[7] and the French National Archives.[1] She was commissioned by Régine Pernoud, conservator at the Museum of History in France between 1949 and 1974.[1]

The Courtauld Institute of Art also holds photographs by Bandy in the Conway Library.[8] They are currently being digitised by the Courtauld Institute of Art, as part of the Courtauld Connects project.[8]

Exhibitions

2006-2007: La photographie humaniste: 1945-1968 (curated by Laure Beaumont-Maillet, Francoise Denoyelle). Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris.[9]

2013: La vie a fleur d’objectif, a solo exhibition of Ina Bandy's works, the Gallery of the Alliance Française de Bruxelles-Europe, Brussels.[2]

Published work

Bandy has contributed photographs for various works written by André Malraux, including his three volumes on The Psychology of Art (published 1947–1949).[10][11] Her photographs taken in Sri Lanka between 1955 and 1956 are used as sources for the illustrations in E. F. C. Ludowyk's book The Footprint of the Buddha.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "FRAN_NP_052248 - Online catalogue". www.siv.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  2. ^ a b ""La vie à fleur d'objectif" par Ina Bandy". Alliance française de Bruxelles-Europe (in French). Retrieved 2020-07-11.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Ina Bandy - Biographie". www.inabandy.org. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
  4. ^ "La fondation - Fondation Robert Ardouvin". www.fondation-ardouvin.org. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
  5. ^ "Ina Bandy - exposition "La vie à fleur d'objectif"". www.inabandy.org. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
  6. ^ Sougez, Emmanuel; Sougez, Marie-Loup; Rochard, Sophie (1993). Emmanuel Sougez: l'éminence grise. Éditions Créaphis. p. 21.
  7. ^ "Ina Bandy (1903-1973)". data.bnf.fr. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  8. ^ a b "Who made the Conway Library?". Digital Media. 2020-06-30. Archived from the original on 2020-07-03. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  9. ^ Beaumont-Maillet, Laure; Denoyelle, Françoise; Versavel, Dominique (2006). La photographie humaniste, 1945-1968.
  10. ^ Malraux, André (1949). The Psychology of Art: The twilight of the absolute. Pantheon Books.
  11. ^ Malraux, André (1949). The Psychology of Art: The creative art. Pantheon Books.
  12. ^ Ludowyk, E. F. C. (2013-05-13). The Footprint of the Buddha. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-02950-0.
Categories