Travel and Sailor suit, ca. 1932

About the Work

An elegantly dressed young woman lounges on a white block as if on the gunwale of a boat. With her right hand she braces herself on a wooden pole suggestive of a railing. Using a minimum of everyday props, the photographer Yva created a holiday atmosphere in her studio. The model is staged from the side in such a way as to enhance the outfit to best effect. The hazy triangular forms in the background are reminiscent of pennants. This photograph was taken on commission from the Berlin School of Textile and Fashion Design and distributed as an advertising image by the Schostal agency, which supplied numerous magazine publishers with pictorial material. Following the National Socialist accession to power in 1933, Yva was required to apply for membership in the Reich Press Chamber in order to continue her work as a commercial photographer. On account of her Jewish descent, however, her application was rejected. Her working conditions were severely limited as a result. Under the increasing threat of the destruction of her livelihood, she saw no alternative but to turn the administration of her studio over to her friend, the art historian Charlotte Weidler. In 1938, Yva was prohibited from practising her profession altogether. She gave up her studio and tried to eke out a living as a radiographer in the Jewish Hospital of Berlin. In 1942 she was arrested, deported, and murdered in the Sobibor extermination camp.