Estorick Collection Hosts First Show Outside Italy on Wanda and Marion Wulz

Key facts

• The Estorick Collection in London presents Wanda and Marion Wulz: Avant-garde Photography in 20th-Century Italy from 16 September to 20 December.
• It is the first exhibition outside Italy to explore the Wulz sisters' story.
• Studio Wulz in Trieste was founded by Giuseppe Wulz in the 1860s and later run by his son Carlo.
• Wanda and Marion Wulz worked in the studio between 1928 and 1981.
• The works come from the Wulz archive at the Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia, one of the oldest photographic firms in the world.
• A 2023 inventory, restoration, and digitisation project was the first-ever reorganisation of the archive.
• Since 2020, uncovering female photographers in the Alinari archive has been an institutional priority, with 5,165 negatives by the sisters given primacy.
• Grants from the Fondazione CR Firenze and the Calliope Arts Foundation supported the project, and the archive is now online.
• Wanda was more experimental, influenced by her 1932 meeting with Futurist founder Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.
• Her work I + Cat was exhibited in the 1932 National Exhibition of Futurist Photography in Trieste.
• Marion focused on photojournalism, documenting Second World War scenes from the Palazzo Hierschel.
• Claudia Baroncini, director of the Fondazione Alinari, highlighted both Wanda's Futurist role and the importance of Marion.