Germaine Krull: Chien Fou

Germaine Krull (1897–1985) had a lasting influence on the history of photography with her artistic photographic works. Less well known is her extensive journalistic work, in which she reflects on her biography and her photographic practice. The exhibition Germaine Krull: Chien Fou. Author and Photographer presents a protagonist and chronicler of the 20th century who was never merely a conformist witness of her time. Germaine Krull’s biography reveals numerous twists and turns and fits into the history of many biographies that were significantly influenced by the political events of the 20th century. However, she never viewed herself as someone who wasted her time. To this day, she continues to share with us not only her life’s journey and experiences, but also her political convictions, personal attitudes, and the reasons behind her decisions.

In the exhibition, she takes us through the phase of her photographic career within the Parisian avant-garde and to the south of France in the mid-1930s. The photographer describes her forced departure from Europe and her escape from Marseille on the Capitaine Paul-Lemerle via Martinique to Rio de Janeiro, where she remained for a year before voluntarily joining the France libre movement and working for Radio Brazzaville for the next two years. From 1944 onwards, Krull worked for France as a war correspondent in Algiers and Alsace. In 1945, she made a very conscious decision to turn her back on Europe: initially still working for France, her assignment as a press photographer took her to Indochina and then to Thailand in 1947. After resigning from her official duties, she deliberately took some ‘time out’ there to continue her earlier photographic projects in France. At the same time, she took over the management of the legendary Oriental Hotel: another unexpected turn and experience in her life. From 1961/62 onwards, she ended this chapter and devoted herself once again to photography and, increasingly, to book projects.

Germaine Krull returned to France only for short periods; photography and writing remained a constant in her life. An actual return to Europe seemed unthinkable for her, even though her biography her inner conflict becomes clear.

The artist’s estate is held by the Museum Folkwang which is now dedicating an exhibition to her for the first time since 1999. The exhibition focuses on all phases of her photographic work and highlights Germaine Krull‘s role as a writer and chronicler of the 20th century. Against this backdrop, the exhibition takes particular account of the political, transnational and also transcultural complexity of her life’s work and, in addition to her words, focuses more strongly on her so-called ‘late work’ in photography, which has received only marginal attention from researchers to date.

The exhibition will be accompanied by numerous events. On January 16–17, 2026, the Museum Folkwang and the University of Duisburg-Essen will jointly host a conference entitled Transitorial Spaces: Artistic Reflections of Transatlantic Exile Routes, which will focus on the escape routes of numerous intellectuals and two transitory spaces of exile: Germaine Krull’s accounts of her own escape from Marseille to La Martinique (1941) and William Kentridge’s work To Cross One More Sea (2024).