Ida Kar

Ida Kar (1908-1974)

Russian photographer

Ida Kar was a woman of many origins who became most well-known for her portraits of London artistic circles, which earned her the moniker ‘Bohemian Photographer’.

Ida Kar, whose real surname is Karamanian, was born in Russia to an Armenian family. She honoured this heritage in her works, and she held an exhibition of Armenian photographs in East Germany. Travelling and capturing life in different countries became a significant focus of Ida’s work. For instance, she photographed Dmitry Shostakovich during her 1957 visit to the Soviet Union, and Cuban leader Fidel Castro in 1963.

Ida’s international art may have been influenced by her upbringing as she moved from Russia to Iran and Egypt. Eventually, she pursued her university studies in Paris. In this city, she also began her career as a photographer.

Her most active years are considered to have been during her London residency that she took up after 1945. Here she used the bohemian circles around her to uplift the art of photography and transform it into a well-respected discipline of fine art. Her efforts resulted in an exhibition of black-and-white photographs in the Whitechapel Gallery in 1960, which was the first such exhibition in a major London gallery. This was important for the recognition of photography as a valued art form as the gallery had two years previously hosted the first major Jackson Pollock exhibition in the UK and thus had an established reputation for giving a platform to experimental exhibitions.

Ida’s other nickname, ‘Artist with a camera’, not only reflects her London success, but also her gift to create and maintain relationships with the artistic communities around her. Painters, writers, and intellectuals were often the subject of her portraits, surrounded by items that most defined their art.

By Eliska Vinklerova