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Lot Essay
Among Bing’s first photo essays upon arriving in Paris was a series taken at the Moulin Rouge nightclub, home of the notorious Cancan dance. Upon their display at the Galerie de la Pléiade in 1931, the photos drew praise from the respected photo critic and photographer Emmanuel Sougez, who christened Bing the 'Queen of the Leica,' writing:
There were, in this window of the Blvd. Raspail, four or six images, tiny, brutal in their use of contrast, yet engaging somehow by a kind of twirling dynamism, a floating movement of unfurled dresses and scarves. There was mystery and reality here, but most of all something new. The artist? Ilse Bing, I was told, a young German girl, just arrived in Paris, who had asked for a corner in which to display these studies.
There were, in this window of the Blvd. Raspail, four or six images, tiny, brutal in their use of contrast, yet engaging somehow by a kind of twirling dynamism, a floating movement of unfurled dresses and scarves. There was mystery and reality here, but most of all something new. The artist? Ilse Bing, I was told, a young German girl, just arrived in Paris, who had asked for a corner in which to display these studies.