Brave Emmi Fock made her way to the center of art photography a hundred years ago - she took nude photos and played with gender roles

In the old photograph, the woman is stretched backwards as if doing a half-volt backwards. The woman is wearing only a skirt. — Dancer Mary Wallé 1929 or 1930.

In the early days of photography, it was not yet known who the profession belonged to, and that made it possible for women to enter the field as early as the 19th century.

The picture took a while.

Photographer Emmi Fock. — Pictured is Fock himself. The family of Emmi Fock (née Jaeckel) moved from Germany to Turku at the beginning of the 20th century.

The German-born Fock received his training as a photographer at the Cologne Art School. In the years 1915–1921, he worked in photo studios in Germany, Stockholm and Mariehamn.

1922 was the time to establish my own photography studio in Turku, Atelier Irmelin. We lived in a time when women gradually entered working life and became more visible actors in society.

In the old photo, a woman wearing a hat and wearing a men's shirt and tie. — The 1920s and 1930s were Fock’s most artistically productive time.

With his pictures, Fock was involved in building a new kind of modern female ideal.

Ambitious and brave

The curator of the Finnish Museum of Photographic Art, Anni Wallenius, photographed in the middle of the exhibition, Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki, 17 February 2023. — Anni Wallenius is the curator of the Finnish Museum of Photographic Art.

– He had studied exceptionally well and was really skilled. Very often he depicted women and almost without exception Fock’s women are such powerful characters who are rulers of the situation and active actors.

Emmi Fock took ambitious studio portraits of the cream of Turku’s social circle, bringing to the pictures the drama and soft light familiar from the shots of Elokuvatähti.

In the old photo, a woman in a fur collar. — With his soft and intense portraits, Fock aimed for the dramatic atmosphere of the pictures of the movie stars.

He also played with fashionable themes in the 20s and 30s; with androgyny and the mixing of gender roles.

Fock was one of Finland’s first fashion photographers and he also focused on dance photos.

And then there were the nudes.

A woman and a boat in an old photograph. — With her nude photos, Emmi Fock also participated in domestic and foreign photo exhibitions in Japan, the USA and Germany.

– Nude photography was one genre in the field of art photography, but Emmi Fock was quite exceptional in the field of Finnish photography, says Wallenius.

– The women pose in them in a self-consciously liberated way, the pictures show a good interaction between the photographer and the photographed. In Fock’s nudes, women are subjects, not objects.

With his artistic production, Fock successfully participated in exhibitions and competitions both in Finland and abroad.

Men’s clubs dominated art photography

At a time when Women Artists in other fields were struggling for the right to exist, many of them were already working as studio photographers. At first, the work of a Photographer was considered a craftsman’s profession and therefore also more suitable for women than any higher art.

– In the first decades of photography, there had not yet been a general understanding of who the photography profession really belonged to, says Anni Wallenius.

– There was no established tradition that it was a men’s realm, when women could also enter the industry.

A woman in a headdress and string of pearls, without clothes, her back to the camera. — Portrait of a woman from 1927.

There were professional photographers in the biggest cities as early as the 1850s. Photography became more common in the following decade, when images could already be printed from negatives to paper positives.

The arrival of the first photographic mass product, business cards, also happened in the 1860s. Labor was needed for the industry.

At the same time, the position of women generally improved in Finland. Unmarried 25-year-old women came of age. Women were able to make contracts themselves, act as entrepreneurs, manage their own funds, which made work as a photographer legally possible for women.

A woman and a German shepherd in an old photograph. — Fock closely followed international trends in his field.

– But yes, even in the field of photography, men always had a head start, says Anni Wallenius.

– There were areas where it was easier for women to work, which means that there was a significant proportion of women in these studio photographers from the beginning.

But when it came to making photographic art, women hit a glass ceiling.

– That activity took place in such photography associations and photography amateur clubs, which were quite gentlemen’s clubs. At first, women were not wanted in them at all, and these often upper-class gentlemen had a condescending and critical attitude towards these female professional photographers.

Forgotten women of history

Emmi Fock ran the successful Atelier Irmelin for decades. He employed many female photographers and also trained them along with the work.

He retired only in 1966, after more than 40 years of work, after suffering from rheumatoid arthritis in his fingers for a long time.

In the old photo, the woman looks intently at the camera. The woman has dark short hair and is wearing only a bra.. — More widely, Fock’s work has been on display in the 1997 Turku Provincial Museum’s exhibition Kuvan kaunis – Emmi Fock’s photographs from the 1920s and 1930s.

– Emmi Fock has fascinated many photo researchers, especially women, says Anni Wallenius.

– But it must be said that his legacy could have been even greater. It is unfortunately common that women in history and also women in the history of photography are forgotten and their production is not known as widely as they deserve.

Maybe it’s not a coincidence that we know about Emmi Fock?

He was brave, trained hard and participated in many shows and competitions. Even as a photographer, he did not want to be an object, but chose to be part of the subject.

In an old photograph, two women in a human pyramid. — Most recently, Emmi Focki’s work was exhibited in Elina Brotherus and Hannele Ranna’s Dialogue exhibition at Ateneum 2022. Focki’s work is stored at least in the Finnish Museum of Photography, the Turku Museum Center’s photo archive and the Otava picture archive.

*Watch the whole Half-past seven story about brave Emmi Fock*