“Amor Skin”: A Surreal Promotional Photograph by Yva
From Our Holdings
The vintage print Amor Skin is an example of early promotional photography. In the 1920s, advertisements and posters were still mainly sketched or painted. Photography was considered a factual and informative medium and was used for news and reports. It took surprisingly long to be discovered as an advertising medium.
Advertisement for Skin Cream
This was a promotional photograph for Amor Skin cream, which was made by the Opoterapia company and sold in Berlin. Made with extracts of the subcutaneous tissue of young turtles, the cream promised younger-looking, smooth, rosy skin. It was sold exclusively in special jars shaped like the lamp pictured in the foreground.
Yva, a Master of Surreal Photography
The individual elements of the Amor Skin advertisement were merged into one image using multiple exposure, a technique that was typical of 1920s surreal photography. The advertising and fashion photographer Yva (Else Ernestine Neuländer, 1900–1942) was so skilled at this technique that she was able to expose her photographic plates up to seven times, producing unreal and dreamlike images.
Yva (Else Ernestine Neuländer), Amor Skin, Berlin about 1925–1930; Jewish Museum Berlin
Advertisement brochure for Amor Skin by the cosmetic firm Opoterapia
Advertisement brochure for Amor Skin by the cosmetic firm Opoterapia in “Der Zuschauer,” pages by the Saltenburg-Bühnen Berlin, Berlin 1928;
Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jens Ziehe
Detail from the advertising brochure for Amor Skin by the cosmetic firm Opoterapia;
Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jens Ziehe
Pioneer of the German Avant Garde
In the 1920s and 1930s, Yva ran a flourishing studio in Berlin with several trainee employees, among them Helmut Newton. Her photographs were published in various well-known magazines and are still considered to have inspired the German avant-garde.
Work Prohibition and Deportation
Yva, who grew up in an Jewish family, was forced to close her studio in 1938 due to the work prohibition (Arbeitsverbot) imposed by the Nazis. She then worked as an X-ray assistant in the Jewish hospital before she and her husband Alfred Hermann Simon were arrested, deported, and presumably murdered at Sobibor in 1942.
| Photographer | Yva (Else Ernestine Neuländer) |
|---|---|
| Title | Amor Skin |
| Collection | Photography |
| Location and year of origin | Berlin, about 1925–1930 |
| Medium | Vintage print, silver gelatine print |
| Dimensions | 27,7 x 22 cm |
Selected Objects: Photographic Collection (6)
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Photographic Collection
From an early promotional photograph by Yva to documentation of Jewish life in Germany before and after the Shoah, discover selected objects from our Photographic Collection and the stories behind them.
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“Amor Skin”
The vintage print is an example of early promotional photography. Using multiple exposures, the photographer Yva was able to produce unreal and dreamlike images
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“White Weeks” at the Ury Department Store
With a brightly lit façade, the Ury brothers promoted “White Weeks” to their customers in February 1930. The promotional campaign testified to their modern business practices and their resulting success
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Hugo Spiegel as Champion Shot
The photograph by Leonard Freed depicts the father of Paul Spiegel, who would later be president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. The Holocaust survivor was probably the first Jewish champion marksman in Germany
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Sally Israel in a Bavarian Costume
Three vacationers in folk costumes gather around the Berlin businessman for a souvenir photo from Bad Reichenhall. The spa town had been a prime destination for Jewish vacationers since the mid-nineteenth century
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Synagogue in the Jewish Retreat Center in Lehnitz
The synagogue was one of the last in Germany to be dedicated before the Second World War. For many, the retreat center became a place where Jews could assert their identity and culture in a hostile environment
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Rededication of the Synagogue at the Jewish Hospital
One year after the end of the Second World War, in 1946, the synagogue at the Jewish hospital on Iranische Strasse in the Berlin district of Wedding was rededicated. Gradually, it became the center of community work in Berlin
