Born Marie Karoline Oestreicher in Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia, in 1915, ‘Maria Austria’ changed her name in 1937 after moving to Amsterdam and opening the photography studio ‘Model and Foto Austria’ with her sister Lisbeth. Before then, from 1933 to 1936, she had been living in Vienna and – armed with her trusty Leica and her Rolleiflex – studying photography at the Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt. However it was in the decades following the war that Maria really made a name for herself with her photographs of everyday life in Amsterdam: in the streets, in the jazz clubs, in the museums and theatres. In particular, she loved to photograph the avant-garde theatre troupes, like La Mama from New York and Tenjo Sajiki from Tokyo, that would come to visit the city from all over the world, symbolising a new age of freedom and creativity.

More information at:
Das Verborgene Museum