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BIOGRAPHY (ENGLISH)
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BIOGRAPHIE (FRANÇAIS)
Photographs below by Ervin Marton – Left to Right:
Marton-Picasso-Cocteau-Chaplin-Armstrong-Chagall-Camus-Terrain Vague
A photographer and an artist with an extensive graphic, painting, and sculpture œuvre, Ervin Marton specialized both in street photography – he admired Atget – and in portraits, capturing much of post-war French cultural life.
Some of the luminaries he photographed include Picasso, Cocteau, Chagall, Camus, as well as Chaplin and Louis Armstrong, along with Gaston Bachelard, Paul Léautaud, Blaise Cendrars, Jacques Prévert, Yves Montand, Juliette Gréco, Foujita and many others.
He was born in Budapest, Hungary, moved to France in 1937 and when the war broke out, as part of the FTP-MOI, joined the French Resistance.
He was friends with other Hungarian emigré photographers such as Brassai, Kertész, Lucien Hervé and Emeric Fehér.
His work is in the collections of Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the National Gallery in Budapest and the Wells Fargo in St. Louis.
The Ervin Marton Estate is represented through the Cohen Gallery in Los Angeles.
Please use the contact form regarding any question concerning the use of his work.
1912-1968
“The poet and novelist Blaise Cendrars called him “l’as du noir et blanc” – the champ of black and white photography.
“an extraordinary poetry and quality/une qualité et une poésie extraordinaire”
Marta Gili – Jeu de Paume Museum Director/Directrice du Musée du Jeu de Paume, Paris
His works are in the National Gallery Museum in Budapest, as well as in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.
His body of photographs starts in his native Hungary with portraits of Hungarian Roma and landscapes.
Later living in Paris, he specializes in street scenes and French landmarks, as well as in portraits of artists and intellectuals (Picasso, Chagall, Cocteau, Léautaud, Mauriac, Jacques Prévert, Darius Milhaud, Albert Schweitzer, Jean Genet, Albert Camus, Chaplin, Gaston Bachelard, Yves Montand, Juliette Gréco, Leonor Fini, Foujita, Marcel Jouhandeau, and many others.
In 1959, he publishes Paris m’a souri, a portrait of Paris, with the poet Maurice Fombeure.
- Many photographs are viewable on the Hungarian Museum of Photography website (enter Marton Ervin into their search engine).
- 15 photographs from the Wells Fargo Collection
- One 1937 pastel self-portrait, as an homage to El Gréco.
- Some photographs are viewable through the Los Angeles-based Stephen Cohen Gallery which represents his estate.
- A couple more are here: an antique shop and the passage of time.
A collage/homage to his work and his WWII resistance activity – from a recent Yom HaShoah/Holocaust Commemoration.
Cocteau: To Ervin as a Friendly Souvenir / À Ervin En Souvenir Amical
“An admirable book” – John Szarkowski, Director of Photography at MoMA
IF YOU WANT TO ASSIST IN AN UPCOMING PUBLICATION OF HIS WORK
Please contact em (arobase en Français – at in English) ervinmarton.com
or use this form.
