Horacio Coppola

1906–2012

Horacio Coppola (Argentinian, 1906–2012) had founded his first film club in Argentina in 1929 and throughout his career maintained a close connection between photography and film. On his first journey to Europe in 1930, Coppola saw photos by László Moholy-Nagy and Albert Renger-Patzsch and they had instilled the wish in him to become a professional photographer. He returned to Berlin in 1932 where he met Grete Stern. It was Stern who introduced him to Walter Peterhans, the master of the Bauhaus photography class and encouraged him to enroll as a student there. Next to his studies at the Bauhaus he worked as an assistant at the Tempelhof Film Studios. In 1936, Stern and Coppola, who were now married and had two children, emigrated from Germany to Argentina. In Buenos Aires, both Stern and Coppola were able to hold their first joint photo exhibition, which was regarded the first exhibition of modern photography in Argentina. In the same year, Coppola took numerous photos of his home city, Buenos Aires. Horacio Coppola and Grete Stern are today regarded as two of the most important Argentinian photographers. Coppola died in 2012 at the age of 105.