Ivana Tomljenović Meller (b. 1906 in Zagreb – d. 1988 in Zagreb) was a Croatian photographer and designer. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb (1924-1928) and then continued her education at the High School for Applied Arts in Vienna. She went to Bauhaus in Dessau with a group of Viennese students and stayed there from the winter semester of 1929 until September 1930. During the first semester, she attended the introductory course offered by the famous painter Josef Albers, where she could study the principles of design and the technology of materials. Having completed the course, she enrolled at Bauhaus’ Department of Photography, which was at that time presided by Walter Peterhans. During her studies, Ivana Tomljenović Meller produced a number of constructions and projects for advertising industry and book covers, as well as photographs that followed the tenets of modern photography to the full. Her knowledge obtained at Bauhaus was applied in art in forms such as the kinetic installations in shop windows in Prague (1933-1935) or posters for the airplane factory in Belgrade (1935-1938).

Photographs and negatives by Ivana Tomljenović Meller date from the period (1929-1931) and show all the features of Bauhaus’ experimental approach: low-angle shots, emphasis on the contrast between light and shade, double exposure, experimenting with negatives, photomontage, and photo-collage.

Photographs and negatives by Ivana Tomljenović Meller date from the period 1929-1931 and show all the features of Bauhaus’ experimental approach: low-angle shots, emphasis on the contrast between light and shade, double exposure, experimenting with negatives, photomontage, and photo-collage. In those years, she also designed advertising posters for razorblades and desk lamps, characterized by functionality, simplicity of lines, contrasting colours, geometrical forms, reduction of the background to monochrome surfaces, specific typography, and the use of collage, all of which reveals them as some of the most exquisite examples of Bauhaus design.

Having left Dessau, Ivana Tomljenović Meller travelled around Europe and eventually settled down in her hometown of Zagreb, where she taught art classes to secondary-school students.