Transcript:Gabriele Münter (1877–1962) was at the forefront of experimental art in Europe during the first half of the twentieth century. Her connection to the United States and her early adoption of the photographic medium, however, are lesser known aspects of her career. From 1898 to 1900, the artist visited maternal relatives in this country with her sister, Emmy. The journey proved crucial to her creative development and recalled her parents’ earlier years living in the U.S. as immigrants before returning to Prussia (now Germany).

Münter arrived in New York Harbor and toured the city before traveling on to Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas. She kept a pocket calendar and relayed to family in Germany her stories of acclimating to rural and urban life. Münter also filled several sketchbooks, sharpening her skills as a draftswoman. Critically, she began practicing photography—using at least one borrowed camera—and visited a professional studio operated by relatives in Marshall, Texas. Around her twenty-third birthday, Münter purchased her first camera, a No. 2 Bulls-Eye. The Eastman Kodak Company marketed this device as widely accessible to middle-class consumers due to its portability, roll film, and “snap shot” capabilities.

Within months, she had taken hundreds of photographs, compiling a selection in a small album. Her subjects spanned from landscapes to still lifes, but Münter’s primary focus was people. Even as a beginner, she showed a confidence and willingness to experiment that pushed her beyond the conventions of the popular box camera.

Münter’s keen interest in this emerging medium persisted after she returned to Europe, informing her subsequent career. She invoked a sense of photographic immediacy in her paintings, later describing them as “moments of my life” and “instantaneous visual experiences.” Though Münter did not exhibit her photographs during her lifetime, this work demonstrates her early commitment to form and composition, and her talent for finding meaning in the everyday.

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