Studio Stone

Exhibition at the Musée de la Photographie in Charleroi | February 01 – May 18, 2025

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In the artistic effervescence of the 1920s-1930s, between Berlin and Brussels, photographers Cami and Sasha Stone occupy a special place. As their period advertisements make clear, the “Studio Stone” offers advertising, industrial and artistic photography. Studio Stone exhibition provides an exemplary corpus of Cami and Sasha Stone’s diverse practice: architectural and industrial views, nudes, performance photographs, portraits of artistic and political celebrities are brought together and echoed in the publications of the period. The research carried out sheds new light on the practice of these forgotten artists of the interwar photographic milieu and reveals their work in all its variety.

Studio Stone, or Atelier Stone, was born of the photographic partnership of the couple made up of the Belgian Wilhelmine Camille Honorine Schammelhout, aka Cami Stone, and the Russian Aleksander Serge Steinsapir, aka Sasha Stone. They met in Berlin, where they founded a studio in 1924. Although the Stone name has somewhat faded into oblivion, they were once considered among the finest photographers of their era. Journalists and critics spoke very highly of their photographs, often placing them on a par with or even above peers who have become benchmarks in the history of photography: André Kertész, Germaine Krull, László Moholy-Nagy and even Man Ray, to name but a few.

(Text: Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi)

Sasha and Cami Stone were undoubtedly of crucial importance to the Ullstein publishing house in Berlin – and vice versa. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Ullstein had always followed and shaped the developments in photography in the up-and-coming media location of Berlin. The decision to make photography a key part of the publications was a success in terms of both content and business. Especially under the conditions of the Weimar Republic, which brought together a number of enormously progressive-minded, knowledgeable creators of this success. 

(Text excerpt from the catalog article Dr. Katrin Bomhoff/ullstein bild collection: Sasha and Cami Stone at Ullstein in Berlin – “The first prerequisite for a photograph is that it is good.”)

The ullstein bild collection in Berlin is one of the lenders of the exhibition, other lenders are:

Amsab-Institut d'Histoire Sociale in Ghent, Bozar in Brussels, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Folkwang Museum in Essen, FOMU in Antwerp, Koninklijke Bibliotheek et Bibliothèque royale in Brussels, Musée Nicéphore Niépce in Chalon-sur-Saône, Städel Museum in Frankfurt and others.

Further information on the exhibition: Musée de la photographie - Centre d'art contemporain de la Fédération Wallonie - Bruxelles

You will find all pictures of the gallery including the picture descriptions in the photo dossier at ullstein bild.