A look at the creative work of photographer Charlotte March

There will be an exhibition on the creative estate of the photographer Charlotte March in the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg. The exhibition features around 300 works that comprehensively outline the artist’s creative phases – from her first photographs in the 1950s with a documentary character to campaigns commissioned by international fashion brands.

The Hamburg fashion photographer staged fashion and models from an unusually progressive perspective for her time – because March showed the women in unusually everyday scenes that showed a modern, free life. March also worked with black models – a rarity in the 1950s. In 1977 she published a book called Mann, oh Mann: A Proposal for the Emancipation of the Attractive Male, whose photographs depict the female view of the male body – and expressed March’s progressive views on gender roles in society.

Between high gloss and the fringes of society

In addition to the well-known fashion and advertising shots, the exhibition also shows many photographs that were taken away from the commercial hustle and bustle. Because the Hamburg native, who was born in 1929 and died in 2005, had more in her repertoire than glossy shots for renowned fashion magazines such as Elle, Vogue Italia, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar and ‘Twin’ – she made her creative debut with shots depicting scenes show the Hamburg cityscape in the post-war period. Many of these early works reflected the social contradictions in the Hanseatic city of the time. With these ‘humanistic photographs’ she leads the viewer to places and to people who walked on the fringes of society and the city – she immortalized insights into the everyday life of street vendors and also life on the Reeperbahn in her black and white -Recordings.

The collected works are part of the Falckenberg Collection, which is managed by Harald Falckenberg and comprises around 30,000 works. The exhibition was curated as part of the eighth triennial of photography in Hamburg. The “Charlotte March” exhibition opens its doors on May 20th and is accessible until September 4th.