Marlies Amling
The other day I received a
phone call from Claire Yaffa. She needed
my mailing address because she decided to send me three of her books. That made think how lucky I am to know
her. As Leica owners, we are indeed
lucky. Our cameras are used and have
been used by almost every photographer of note.
Today’s photography is unthinkable without the contributions of the
Leica and its users.
But only a relatively
small number of photographers have received international acclaim. It is safe to say that a larger number of
excellent photographers work and have worked in relative obscurity.
One such photographer is my
sister Marlies Amling. She grew up in
the photography business of our father in Barntrup, Germany. After completing trade schools and the
Hamburger Fotoschule (Hamburg School of Photography) and after working for
several photographers as an apprentice, she earned the title of Meister Fotograf
(Master Photographer).
Marlies with me in front of our dad's studio
She took over the business
of our father. Her skills enabled her
and her husband to grow the business and to become known much beyond the city
limits. But in a rural area growth was
necessarily limited. The result was that
they sold Foto Studio Amling, the former Foto Richter in Barntrup and took over
an existing studio in Weilburg, just 30 miles outside of Frankfurt. Weilburg is also just about 12 miles from
Wetzlar.
Over the years there has
always been a friendly rivalry between the two of us. I don’t hesitate to say that usually I have
come out at the back end of this “competition.” I gladly admit that she is the better
photographer.
I have certainly done
alright for myself, but Marlies has a much better eye for photography. She sees things that I simply overlook. The result is that she has a substantially
larger archive of excellent photographs of quite a different number of venues
and subject matters.
Her main business was
portraits and related photography. She
also published a book titled “Gesichter Einer Stadt” (Faces of a City), which
shows a large cross section of the people in Weilburg.
Another relatively large
body of work is her travel photographs.
Marlies and her husband have been fortunate to be able to travel
extensively. Definitely no common travel
snapshots here.
Due to an illness Marlies
decided to retire a few years ago and to move to a new place just outside of
Munich. But that doesn’t mean she does
no longer takes photographs. She is as
good as ever and I hope that we will see a lot more of her work in the coming
years.
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Amazing stuff. I would like to see more of her work.
ReplyDeleteI like her work a lot. I have never heard of Barntrup. Where in Germany is it?
ReplyDeleteBarntrup is a small town, about 50 miles southwest of Hannover or 150 miles south of Hamburg.
ReplyDelete