Lucia Moholy

1894–1989

Born Lucia Schulz in Prague in 1894, she trained as a German and English teacher in 1912, before studying art history and philosophy at the University of Prague. From 1915 to 1918, she worked as a book editor in Berlin. In 1920, she became editor of the publishing house Rowohlt and in 1921 married László Moholy-Nagy, who was appointed to the Bauhaus in 1923. Lucia Moholy worked with him intensively on book projects and photo experiments. Lucia began an apprenticeship in one of László’s photography studios and at the same time photographed objects produced in the Bauhaus workshops for publications. From 1923 to 1925, she worked as a freelance photographer at the Bauhaus Weimar. After the Bauhaus had moved to Dessau in1926, she specialized in portrait and architecture photography. After separating from Moholy-Nagy in 1929, she taught at the Itten-Schule in Berlin from 1930 to 1932. In 1933 she emigrated to London, where she worked as a portrait photographer and author and later became head of a technical reproduction facility. After relocating to Switzerland in 1959, she worked in publishing and participated in many exhibitions. From 1960 on she devoted herself to reconstructing her lost archive.