300px, Anya Teixeira 1961 Anya Teixeira (1913 – 1992) was a Russian Empire-born British street photographer and

photojournalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...

. Her work is held in the collection of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, London.

Biography

Teixeira's family escaped the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

in 1917, through a rescue mounted by her uncle

Morris Gest Morris Gest (also Maurice Guest, March 15, 1875 – May 16, 1942) was an American theatre producer, theatrical producer of the early 20th century. Early life Moishe Gershnowitz was born near Vilna (then part of the Russian empire, now Lithuania), ...

, a New York City impresario. The family settled in Berlin in 1924 so as to be near at hand for the expected overthrow of the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

regime. Fifteen years later her family had to flee from the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. Arriving in England in April, 1939, she found that

refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

like her were only allowed to be domestic servants or factory workers but she was eventually allowed an office job. She was to be penned into various secretarial positions until her retirement in 1975. Photography was a spare time activity taken up seriously at age 47. Three years later she co-founded the Creative Photo Group in London which drew approval from the historians Helmut and Alison Gernsheim in their book ''A Concise History of Photography''.

Exhibitions

*''Fotoarbeiten'', Congress Centrum, Hamburg *''On Stage'', Camden Arts Centre, London *''Dancing in the Streets'', Camden Arts Centre, London * World Press Photo,

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

* Photokina (awarded Crystal Obelisk) Cologne *''Art for Society'',

Whitechapel Art Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fir ...

, London, 1978 * Midland Arts Centre, Birmingham * Midland Group, Nottingham * British Council Travelling Exhibition (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) *British Council Theatre Exhibition, Lisbon *British Council Fringe Theatre Exhibition, Venezuela *''Women's Images of Men'', ICA, London, 1980

Collections

Teixeira's work is held in the following permanent collection: *

, London: 4 prints (as of 8 March 2022)

References

General references

Walter Boje Walter Boje (16 November 1905 – 20 July 1992) was a German photographer. He is considered a pioneer of creative colour photography. Life Born in Berlin, Boje studied national economics and graduated as an economist. In 1932 he was awarde ...

(editor) Foto Prisma, April 1963 * Anya Teixeira (contributor) AP, Calls for formation of Creative Photo Group, 14 August 1963 * Ainslie Ellis (reviewer) ''British Journal of Photography'', 16 October 1964 * Anya Teixeira (invited reviewer) The Photographic Journal of the Royal Photographic Society, November 1967

External links