Name Mario Bucovich | ||
Mario von Bucovich (1884-1944) was also known as Marius von Bucovich. He was born at Pula in the Istrian region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and held the title of Baron. His father, August, Freiherr von Bucovich, was a former Corvette Captain in the Austro-Hungarian navy and later an entrepreneur in the railroad concession sector. Mario von Bucovich's wife, Marie, was also a photographer.
He worked primarily in Germany in the 1920s and 30s, as well as traveled to France and England. In his published work he was most noted for his urban studies with a focus on streetscapes, but his studio work undertaken at the Atelier Karl Schenker was often of entertainment personalities of Weimar period stage and screen. Amongst his most notable books were Berlin, Das Gesicht Der Stadt (Berlin, Portrait of a City) and Paris (with a forward by Paul Morand). The Paris book included photos by Germaine Krull. The Berlin book published originally by Albertus Verlag, a publishing house he founded in 1928, had a forward written by the author Alfred Doblin.
He had a base in Berlin during his most productive years between the wars, being linked to the Atelier Schenker. He moved to New York during the 1930s where he worked for a publishing house on 41st Street. In his American period he published two photographic essays, Washington D.C. City Beautiful and Manhattan Magic. A Collection of Eighty-Five Photographs. He moved to Mexico and was working there through at least the early part of that decade, until his death in 1944.
His work was shown at major photography salons of the day, including the Fourth International Exhibition of Pictorial Photography at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, the Third International Exhibition of Pictorial Photography Seattle Camera Club, and the 15th and 16th Annual Pittsburgh Salon of Photographic Art at the Carnegie Institute.
His work is in the collections of the New Orleans Museum of Art, the National Museum of Mexican Art and the National Gallery of Canada.
He photographed Marlene Dietrich and Leni Riefenstahl (in her days as a dancer, preceding her career as a film director). His views of Girona in Spain taken in 1933 were published in the National Geographic magazine.