Mandello, Jeanne

Photographer born in Germany in 1907 and died in Spain in 2001. She studied photography in Berlin in the 1920s and established herself as an independent photographer in Frankfurt. In early 1934, when the Nazis came to power, she left Germany with her husband, Arno Grünebaum, and they traveled to France. They worked in fashion and advertising, constantly exploring new techniques: experimenting with lighting, low-angle shots, unusual framing, close-ups, photomontages, all in line with the photographic and avant-garde movements of the time developed by artists like Man Ray. It was then that "Johanna" renounced her native country and became "Jeanne." The occupation of France and the persecution of Jews by the collaborationist government of Philippe Pétain led them to exile once again, this time to Uruguay, where they arrived in 1941.

Jeanne resumed her career for the third time. She is particularly recognized for her empathetic portraits and her avant-garde use of light and techniques such as solarization and photograms. Being very eclectic, she experimented with numerous formats: portraits, traditional or solarized photography, abstraction of natural motifs, landscapes, photomontages, "touristic" photographic reports, and more. Jeanne and Arno, presenting themselves as French, met and photographed poets Rafael Alberti and Jules Supervielle, and captured the high society of Montevideo and Punta del Este.

In 1953, Jeanne left Uruguay to follow her second husband, Lothar Bauer, first to Brazil and then to Spain. However, she maintained her Uruguayan nationality, which she obtained in the late 1940s, for the rest of her life.