Franciszka and Stephan Themerson

Both were born in Poland, where they met and married. They moved to Paris in 1938, and then found their way to the UK, Franciszka in 1940, Stefan in 1942. Franciszka was principally a painter and Stefan was a writer, but in his twenties, he also began to experiment with photography. The period between the First and Second World Wars was a time of great innovation in photography and film. Photographers began to make abstract images experimenting with darkroom techniques. It was at this time Stefan Themerson started making photograms, which involved laying objects directly on light-sensitive paper.