Neo-Realist

Maria Austria: An Amsterdam Neo-Realist Photographer

Maria Austria: An Amsterdam Neo-Realist Photographer

Born in Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary) in 1915, Maria Austria (Marie Karoline Oestreicher) completed her photography training at the “Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt” in Vienna in 1936. She briefly worked freelance but in 1937, with the persecution of Jews on the rise in Austria, she decided to move to Amsterdam. When German troops occupied the Netherlands, she again faced persecution as…