Inge Morath was born in Graz, Austria, in 1923. After studying languages in Berlin, she became a translator, then a journalist and the Austrian editor for Heute, an Information Service Branch publication based in Munich. All her life Morath would remain a prolific diarist and letter-writer, retaining a dual gift for words and pictures that made her unusual among her colleagues.
A friend of photographer Ernst Haas, she wrote articles to accompany his photographs and was invited by Robert Capa and Haas to Paris to join the newly founded Magnum agency as an editor and researcher. She began photographing in London in 1951, and joined Magnum Photos as a photographer in 1953. While working on her own first assignments, Morath also assisted Henri Cartier-Bresson during 1953-54, becoming a full member in 1955.
In the following years, Morath traveled extensively in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Her special interest in the arts found expression in photographic essays published by a number of leading magazines. After her marriage to playwright Arthur Miller in 1962, Morath settled in New York and Connecticut. She first visited the USSR in 1965. In 1972 she studied Mandarin and obtained a visa to China, making the first of many trips to the country in 1978.
Morath was at ease anywhere. Some of her most important work consists of portraits, but of passers-by as well as celebrities. She was also adept at photographing places: her pictures of Boris Pasternak's home, Pushkin's library, Chekhov's house, Mao Zedong's bedroom, artists' studios and cemetery memorials are permeated with the spirit of invisible people still present. Inge Morath died in New York City on 30 January 2002.
Awards
1992 Great Austrian State Prize for Photography
1984 Doctor Honoris Causa Fine Arts, University of Connecticut, Hartford, USA
1983 State of Michigan Senate Resolution NO 295; Tribute to Inge Morath in recognition of
her outstanding accomplishment as a photographer and chronicler of human life
Exhibitions
2005 The Road to Reno - Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China
2004 Chinese Encounters: Photographs by Inge Morath - Pingyao International
Photography Festival, Pingyao, China
2003 Exposition - Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation, Paris, France.
2003 Danube - City Gallery of Russe, Russe, Bulgaria.
2002 New York - Galerie Fotohof, Salzburg, Austria; Stadt Passau, Europäische; Wochen,
Germany ESWE Forum, Wiesbaden; Esther Woerdehoff, Paris, France;
Amerikahaus Tübingen, Germany.
1999/00 Retrospective Kunsthalle Wien; FNAC Etoile, Paris; FNAC, Barcelona
1999 Spain in the Fifties - Museo del Cabilde, Montevideo, Uruguay
1998 Danube - Festival of Central European Culture, London, UK; Museen d. Stadt
Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
1998 Retrospective - Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh, UK; Museum of Photography in
Charleroi , Belgium; Municipal Gallery, Pamplona, Spain
1998 Celebrating 75 Years - Leica Gallery, New York, USA
1997 Retrospective - Kunsthal, Rotterdam, Netherlands
1997 The Danube - Keczkemet Museum, Esztergom Museum, Hungary
1997 Photographs 1950s to 1990s - Tokyo Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan
1996 Women to Women - Takashimaya Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1996 The Danube - Neues Schauspielhaus, Berlin, Germany; Leica Gallery, New York,
USA; Galeria Fotoforum, Bolzano, Italy
1995 Spain in the fifties - Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Madrid, Spain; Museo de
Navarra,Pamplona, Spain
1994 Spain in the fifties - Spanish Institute, New York, USA
1992/94 Retrospective - Neue Galerie Linz, Austria ;America House, Frankfurt, Germany;
Hardenberg Gallery, Velbert, Germany; Galerie Fotogramma, Milano, Italy;
Royal Photographic Society, Bath, UK; Smith Gallery and Museum, Stirling, UK;
America House, Berlin, Germany; Hradcin Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
1991 Portraits - Kolbe Museum Berlin, Germany; Rupertinum Museum Salzburg, Austria
1989 Portraits - Burden Gallery, Aperture Foundation, New York, New York, USA
1989 Portraits - Norwich Cathedral, Norwich, UK
1989 Portraits - American Cultural Center, Brussels, Belgium
1988 Retrospective Union of Photojournalists, Moscow, Russia; Sala del Canal Museum,
Madrid, Spain; Rupertinum Museum, Salzburg, Austria
Books
2006 The road to Reno, Steidl, Germany
2002 New York, Otto Müller/Verlag, Austria
2000 Saul Steinberg Masquerade, Viking Studio, USA
1999 Inge Morath: Life as a Photographer, Kehayoff Books, Germany
1999 Arthur Miller: Photographed by Inge Morath, FNAC, Spain
1999 Inge Morath: Portraits, Verlag, Austria
1996 Woman to Woman, Magnum Photos, Japan
1995 Donau, Verlag, Austria
1994 Inge Morath: Spain in the Fifties, Arte con Texto, Spain
1992 Inge Morath: Photographs 1952 to 1992, Otto Müller/Verlag, Autria
1991 Russian Journal, Aperture Foundation, USA
1986 Portraits, Aperture, USA
1984 Salesman in Beijing, Viking Press, USA
1981 Bilder aus Wien: Der Liebe Augustin, Reich Verlag, Switzerland
1980 From Persia to Iran: A Historical Journey, Viking Press, USA
1979 Chinese Encounters, Straus & Giroux, USA
1979 Inge Morath: Photographs of China, Grand Rapids Art Museum, USA
1977 In the Country, Viking Press, USA
1975 Grosse Photographen unserer Zeit: Inge Morath, C.J. Bucher Verlag, Switzerland
1973 East West Exercises, Simon Walker & Co., USA
1969 In Russia, Viking Press, USA
1967 Le Masque (Drawings by Saul Steinberg), Maeght Editeur, France
1960 Bring Forth the Children: A Journey to the Forgotten People of Europe and the Middle
East, McGraw-Hill, USA
1958 De la Perse à l'Iran, Robert Delpire, France
1956 Venice Observed, Reynal & Co., USA
1956 Fiesta in Pamplona, Universe Books, USA
1955 Guerre à la Tristesse, Robert Delpire, France