Gertrudes Altschul

Like most members of São Paulo’s Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (FCCB), Altschul was an amateur, meaning that she pursued photography on her own time, without any professional ambition or affiliation. The word Bandeirante in the club’s name was an allusion to a seventeenth-century São Paulo–based group of explorers and fortune hunters, signaling the club’s desire to connect with its regional history as well as the spirit of innovation then associated with the term. Altschul officially became a member of the FCCB in July 1952, and just a year later this study of contrasting architectural forms was featured on the cover of Boletim, the club’s monthly magazine. Altschul called the work simply Lines and Tones, naming neither the buildings nor the neighborhood, underscoring her conviction (shared by her fellow club members) that photography could transform the world through the camera’s lens into something entirely new.

The FCCB actively recruited female members for its Secção Feminina (Women’s Section), granting women photographers discounted membership fees and promoting their achievements in both the magazine and the club’s vibrant domestic and international network of salons. Altschul’s exceptional talent was widely heralded: the backs of many of her large prints are covered with stamps and labels from the numerous salons to which her work was accepted. The judges doubtless appreciated the striking graphic impact of this urban juxtaposition, achieved in a narrow tonal range of soft grays.