Introduction
Marie Oestreicher was born in Carlsbad (now Karlovy Vary, Czech
Republic) during the First World War in 1915, two months after the
death of her father. Her brother, twenty years her senior, was a
medical student and her elder sister was already at secondary school.
After attending secondary school in Carlsbad, she studied photography
in Vienna. Because of increasing anti-Semitism in Vienna, she went to
Amsterdam following her final exams in 1937. There, her sister Lisbeth
Oestreicher had established a studio for knitwear designs. They worked
together under the name ‘Model en Foto Austria’ for several Dutch
magazines. It was then Marie adopted the professional name Maria
Austria.
In 1942 the Nazis decreed that all Jews in the Netherlands had to
report to the Westerbork transit camp. Hans Bial, whom Maria had
recently married, did go to Westerbork but Maria joined the underground
resistance to work as a courier and to assist in forging identity
papers. It was there that she met Henk Jonker, who would become her
second husband. She taught Henk photography. Directly after the 1945
liberation, they established the photo agency Particam Pictures (a
contraction of Partisan Camera) at Willemsparkweg 120 in Amsterdam.
There they were joined by the photographers Aart Klein and Wim Zilver
Rupe. The agency’s portraits and photographs of post-war reconstruction
gained widespread recognition. In 1948 Particam Pictures became the
main photographic agency for the newly established Holland Festival, an
annual festival of music, theatre, opera and ballet. When Aart Klein
and Wim Zilver Rupe left Particam Pictures to go their own way, Maria
and Henk remained the most important photographers for the festival.
From the start, Maria was highly active in promoting photography within
the Gebonden Kunsten in de federatie (GKf), an organisation that
represented the interests of artists. She pleaded with the Ministry of
Culture to recognise photography as an art form in its own right so
that subsidies would also be available to photographers.
She was very demanding of her clients, insisting that she be credited
for her photographs published in newspapers and magazines and, more
importantly, forbidding cropping of her images.
Gradually Maria focused on her true passions: contempory avant-garde
music, theatre and dance. She documented performances at the Mickery
Theater from its inception in 1965 and photographed the cultural
protests of the 1960s such as the Aktie Notenkraker and Aktie Tomaat.
She continued to document all aspects of the Holland Festival until the
end of her career.
In 1962 her marriage with Henk Jonker ran aground and she continued
Particam Pictures alone with the assistance of Jaap Pieper, Vincent
Mentzel and Bob van Dantzig. She died unexpectedly at home at the
beginning of January 1975 from a bout of flu that she had not taken
seriously.
For the outside world she was a wel-known photographer, a champion of
avant-garde theatre and music, but for the three of us she was a
wonderful aunt who documented family events, gave great presents and
drew us into with her enthusiasm for music, theatre and ballet.
She left an extraordinary archive of negatives and prints that had to
be preserved and made accessible. In consultation with friends and
family, the Stichting Fotoarchief Maria Austria-Particam was
established. With the help of assistants Bob van Dantzig and Jaap
Pieper, the aim was to maintain the archive so that it could still be a
source for publishers and exhibitions. One of the founding statutes of
the Stichting Fotoarchief Maria Austria-Particam was the establishing
of the Nederlands Fotoarchief (NFA) the aim of which was to care for
the archives of important photographers in the Netherlands. Maria
Austria was practically the first photographer of her generation to
leave behind an important photographic archive.
But things did not proceed as envisioned. The trustees of the Stichting
Fotoarchief Maria Austria-Particam established the NFA with a state
subsidy that was granted on the condition that the NFA be based in
Rotterdam. The trustees of the Stichting Fotoarchief Maria
Austria/Particam were unwilling to comply with this condition and
decided to keep Maria’s and Particam’s archives in Amsterdam together
with those of Hans Dukkers and Carel Blazer. To this end, they applied
for a subsidy from the City of Amsterdam. Meanwhile, the NFA went to
Rotterdam. The City of Amsterdam granted the subsidy in 1992 for the
Stichting Maria Austria Instituut (MAI), in which the archives of the
Stichting Fotoarchief Maria Austria-Particam were housed. Since then
the MAI has grown to become a leading organisation for photography with
fifty archives of important photographers, housed in the Amsterdam City
Archives. In 2009 the archives of Maria Austria, Henk Jonker, Particam
and Hans Dukkers were donated to the MAI on the condition that they
remain in Amsterdam. The partnership between the MAI and the Amsterdam
City Archives promises a healthy future for the photographic archives
maintained by the MAI.
Biography of Maria Austria (Marie Oestreicher) 1915-1975
| 1915 |
Marie Karoline Oestreicher is born in Carlsbad (now Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic) |
| 1932-1937 |
studies at the Höhere Grafische Bundes Lehr und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna |
| 1937 |
partnership with her sister Lisbeth under the name ‘Model en Foto Austria’ |
| 1942 |
marries Hans Bial |
| 1943 |
joins the resistance under the assumed name Elizabeth Huijnen |
| 1945 |
founds ‘Particam Pictures’ with Henk Jonker and others |
| 1950 |
marries Henk Jonker |
| 1956 |
Aart Klein and Wim Zilver Rupe leave ‘Particam Pictures’ |
| 1963 |
divorces Henk Jonker |
| 1963-1975 |
continues working under the name Maria Austria-Particam |
| 1975 |
dies at home in Amsterdam |
| 1976 |
establishment of Stichting Fotoarchief Maria Austria-Particam |
| 1992 |
establishment of the Maria Austria Instituut (MAI), Amsterdam |
| 2009 |
the archives of Maria Austria-Particam and Hans Dukkers are donated to the MAI |