André Kertész

Kertész made Underwater Swimmer, Esztergom in 1917 while he was still in Hungary. The image is famous because the distorted body seen through water anticipates later modernist experiments with viewpoint and abstraction.

Kertész brought a lyrical, quiet style to street scenes in Budapest, Paris, and New York. His work influenced later photographers including Henri Cartier-Bresson, who admired his ability to find poetic geometry in daily life.

Distortions is a series Kertész made in Paris in the 1930s using funhouse mirrors and nude models. The pictures turn the body into stretched, surreal forms while still using straightforward photographic optics.

Kertész moved to New York in 1936, partly for magazine work with Keystone and other publishers. He struggled for recognition in the United States for decades, even though his earlier Paris work had already shaped European modernist photography.