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| Kraszna-Krausz | |
|---|---|
| Name | Kraszna-Krausz |
| Birth date | 1903 |
| Death date | 1989 |
| Occupation | Author; Publisher; Editor |
| Known for | Photography and cinematography bibliography and publishing |
Kraszna-Krausz Kraszna-Krausz was a Hungarian-born author, editor, and publisher prominent for his bibliographic and instructional work in photography and cinematography who established influential publishing lists and reference works that intersected with figures and institutions across Europe and North America. His career connected him with practitioners and organizations such as Ansel Adams, Roland Barthes, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Hitchcock, and publishers like Penguin Books, Faber and Faber, Routledge and institutions including British Film Institute, Royal Photographic Society and Museum of Modern Art. Kraszna-Krausz’s activities influenced collections and archives at Victoria and Albert Museum, Imperial War Museums, Library of Congress, and impacted discourse in venues like The Times and New Statesman.
Born in Budapest in 1903, Kraszna-Krausz grew up during the aftermath of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the upheavals following the Treaty of Trianon and the Hungarian Soviet Republic. He attended schools influenced by the cultural milieu of Central Europe where contemporaries included figures from the Bauhaus movement, the Vienna Secession, and intellectuals linked to Sigmund Freud and György Lukács. His formative years overlapped with publications from houses like Alfred A. Knopf and the rise of journals such as Camera Work and Der Sturm, while he encountered émigré networks connecting to cities like Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and later London.
Kraszna-Krausz began as a writer and editor in interwar Budapest and later relocated to London where he founded or co-founded publishing ventures that produced monographs, manuals, and bibliographies linked to practitioners such as Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, Man Ray, Brassaï and filmmakers like Sergei Eisenstein, Jean Renoir, Satyajit Ray and Fritz Lang. He collaborated with booksellers and distributors connected to Foyles, Waterstones, Hammersmith, and publishing professionals affiliated with Simon & Schuster and Macmillan Publishers. His lists catered to communities around institutions such as the British Museum, Tate Modern, National Gallery, and film schools like the London Film School and National Film and Television School.
Kraszna-Krausz compiled bibliographies, guides, and critical introductions that became reference points for photographers and cinematographers including Imogen Cunningham, Walker Evans, Eadweard Muybridge, George Méliès, Charlie Chaplin, and technicians associated with Technicolor and Eastman Kodak. His editorial work intersected with theorists and critics such as Walter Benjamin, Susan Sontag, John Berger, Roland Barthes, and practitioners active at venues like Magnum Photos and festivals including Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival. His reference volumes informed conservation and curatorial projects at Getty Research Institute, Smithsonian Institution, and academic programs at University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of London, Columbia University and New York University.
Kraszna-Krausz produced major titles, catalogs and series that documented techniques and histories used by figures as diverse as Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Andrei Tarkovsky, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles and Federico Fellini. His editorial collaborations involved presses and periodicals including Architectural Review, Picture Post, The Observer, Sight & Sound, Photographica, Aperture and Photographische Mitteilungen. Libraries and research collections at British Library, Bodleian Library, Harvard University, Yale University and Princeton University hold copies of his annotated bibliographies, manuals, and curated lists used by students studying under professors like Victor Burgin, Laura Mulvey, André Bazin and Mary Ann Doane.
Kraszna-Krausz received accolades and institutional recognition from bodies such as the Royal Photographic Society, the British Film Institute, International Federation of Photographic Art, and was honored in retrospectives at venues like the National Media Museum and Tate Britain. His contributions were acknowledged by societies and trusts including The Leverhulme Trust, Arts Council England, Society of Authors and academic awards tied to University of Westminster and Royal College of Art. His name is commemorated in annual grants and book awards given in partnership with organizations like National Portrait Gallery, Wellcome Trust and professional bodies including British Society of Cinematographers.
Kraszna-Krausz’s personal network connected him to émigré communities and cultural figures such as Arthur Koestler, Ernst Gombrich, E.M. Forster, Iris Murdoch and photographers and filmmakers who settled in London post-World War II, including ties to BBC broadcast circles and curators at Serpentine Galleries. His legacy endures through named prizes, archival collections, donated papers and continued citation in scholarship by academics at Goldsmiths, UCL, King's College London, Courtauld Institute of Art and in exhibition histories at Serge Diaghilev-era study groups. Kraszna-Krausz’s influence persists in curricula, museum catalogs, and bibliographies used by practitioners, critics, and institutions across the photography and film communities.
Category:Publishers Category:Authors Category:Photographic literature