1913 — 2000
The humanist photographer Nicolás Muller was among the foremost Hungarian social documentarians. Born into a Jewish family, and armed with a camera from the age of thirteen, Muller left Hungary at the age of twenty-five, passing through Morocco and Portugal before ultimately settling in Spain. His photography put particular focus on the working classes, from street life in Tangiers to port workers in Marseille.
The artist described his outlet as "a weapon [and] an authentic document of reality," and he employed off-kilter perspectives and high-angle shots that played into an avant-garde approach. In Paris, Muller moved in the same circles as his compatriots Brassaï and the war photographer Robert Capa, co-founder of Magnum Photos, and he was published in Paris Match, among others. In Madrid, he continued his photojournalism, while also shooting portraits of key figures in the art world, including the novelist Pío Baroja and the conductor Ataúlfo Argenta.
Retiring at sixty-eight, Muller spent his final two decades in Andrín, northern Spain. He died in 2000. He has been exhibited across Europe, most recently in Budapest's Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center in 2022.
