Martin Munkacsi set great store by the fact that he was the best-paid photographer of his time. Indisputably one of the most significant photographers of the 20th century, he shaped the beginnings of modern photojournalism.

Munkacsi’s work reveals a tense, technology-obsessed, glamorous and contradictory epoch. He published his first sports photos in 1921, and went on to work for Berlin Illustrirte Zeitung, Uhu, Die Dame, Vu and other international publications. By the time he emigrated to the USA in 1934, he had revolutionized fashion photography. He worked for Harper’s Bazaar, published works in LIFE to great acclaim, and photographed the influential series ‘How Americans Live’ for Ladies’ Home Journal.
Munkacsi combined journalistic accuracy with a highly formal aesthetic, inspiring Henri Cartier-Bresson to take up the art.
Munkacsi’s work was scattered throughout the world, but this volume brings together for the first time images from all Munkacsi’s artistic phases, including several photographs and bodies of work never seen since their magazine publication.
F. C. Gundlach is a photographer and founder of the photography museum Haus der Photographie in Hamburg.