Weimar Photography in Context Typology, Sequentiality, Narrativity

The Weimar Republic (1919–1933) was a golden age of photography. Within just over a decade, Germany and its capital Berlin became a center of international modernism; photography, evolving in close dialogue with other art forms, was at the forefront of artistic innovation. Weimar photographers broke away from a pictorialist emulation of painting, challenging the very definition of (art) photography in the process. Technology was key in this process; as cameras became lighter, lenses faster, and film stock more light sensitive, this changed how, and by whom, photographs were produced and the ways and contexts in which they were viewed.

The rise of amateur photography was one notable development, buoyed up by publications such as Werner Gräff’s Es kommt der neue Fotograf! (1929), an (anti-) instruction manual and rallying cry, telling photographers to emancipate themselves from the rules of ‘correct’ composition. This volume was published by the Werkbund; other leading institutions echoing the call for more artistic experimentation took part in this debate, most notably the Bauhaus and the associated movement of Neues Sehen (New Vision). The primary project was to change viewing habits; this was shared by the photographers of Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), though in contrast to the experimental, defamiliarizing images of Neues Sehen, their sharply focused documentary style remained indebted to an older tradition of realism, or ‘Sachlichkeit’.

Not only did Weimar photographers draw on new technology, they also employed new recording strategies and new subject matters to radically redefine the conventions of art photography and the more general role of photography in society, its habits and conventions of viewing. One central feature of Weimar photography, which accounts for many of its innovative qualities, is its emphasis not on the individual image but on groups, clusters and sequences, often linked through explicit or implicit underlying narratives. Advances in printing technology meant that for the first in the history of photography, photographic images could be reproduced in high quality, in high print runs and at a reasonable price. The extraordinary career of the Weimar photobook, which became one of the main mechanisms for photographers to present their work, is the direct result of this development. The cinema, a medium whose narrative capacities by far outstripped the static photograph, became a crucial reference point for photographers, some of whom also worked in film. The illustrated magazine reflected this trend by featuring photo essays and other multiply illustrated articles. Taken together, these new formats enabled photographers to reach a much wider audience.

While existing research especially in an Anglo-American context centers on leading figures of Weimar photography such as László Moholy-Nagy, August Sander and Karl Blossfeldt, a more detailed exploration of Weimar photography ‘in context’ is still missing. Thus, the role of photography within a wider cultural landscape, its straddling of the divide between high and popular culture, and its profound impact on habits of seeing remain under-explored. Photobooks and photo-essays of the Weimar period presented images as part of typologies and sequences. Artists and intellectuals of the 1920s were obsessed with physiognomy and typology. Numerous photobooks—including August Sander’s well-known Antlitz der Zeit (1929) but also Erich Salomon’s Berühmte Zeitgenossen in unbewachten Augenblicken (1931), Erich Retzlaff’s Das Antlitz des Alters (1930) or Erna Lendvai-Dircksen’s Das deutsche Volksgesicht (1932)—present sequences of images that conceive of the human face through typologies of class, race, age, occupation, or political conviction—radically redefining the rules of photographic portraiture.

These innovations in photographic practice were catalyzed by the political and social crises of the Weimar Republic. A widespread sense of uncertainty after the lost World War led to attacks from left and right on the new German democracy. The ripples of these shockwaves can be traced in the photographic work produced in the 1920s and especially the early 30s, when the country, after a brief period of stability, was engulfed in the great depression. Throughout this period, the contested legacy of the War lingered on and affected photographic practices and debates. For many, the War experience had been defined by rapid advances in technology...