Florence Henri and Seeing the World Anew

The window is not always a clear or transparent view but can be linked to the inventive, often self reflective, ways that the photographer frames an image. In 1927 Florence Henri studied at the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany, where she was inspired by her teacher László Moholy-Nagy’s philosophy of “New Vision”—using photography to see the world in a new way. After she moved to Paris, Henri joined the group of abstract artists known as “Cercle et Carré” (Circle and Square), along with painters Fernand Léger and Piet Mondrian. Here the photographer finds a new perspective on the view out her window in Paris, juxtaposing the forms of the windowpanes and the edge of a mirror, which she often used in her work.