Kati Horna (Museo Amparo)

Kati Horna / ISBN 9788415118732 / 352-page hardcover, 9.5 x 12 inches, from Editorial RM publishing / top notch production all around

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The photographic oeuvre of Kati Horna (1912-2000) spans decades, geographical boundaries and visual practices. Horna witnessed the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; the outbreak of World War I, which ousted her from Budapest--after which she moved to Berlin, then Paris; and the Spanish Civil War, after which World War II prompted her final move to Mexico, her adopted country. It was in Mexico that Horna found her artistic community, among the Surrealist ex-pats Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo and Edward James. Even as a war photographer, she appropriated Surrealist photomontage, developing an original, intimate style of photojournalism. This superbly produced volume celebrates her extensive and diverse work, much of which has been previously unpublished or available only in limited circulation, and allows us to appreciate the incredible range of her oeuvre, from Surrealist to documentary photography. Featured alongside these photos are a chronology of Horna's life, essays by Peter Baki, Jean-Francois Chevrier, Estrella de Diego, Juan Manuel Bonet and Jos Antonio Rodriguez and a text by Horna's daughter, accompanied by documentary material from her personal archive.