Alfred Ehrhardt Fotografien

Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung; first edition
English, German
232 pages

Alfred Ehrhardt is considered an outstanding representative of German avant-garde photography. With the limited image section and the serial rhythmization of the image structures, he combines tendencies of New Objectivity photography and New Vision. He isolates the natural form from its objective context and dissolves the image structure to the point of abstraction. He often uses sharp light to achieve a strong light-dark contrast. Entirely committed to the structural vision taught at the Bauhaus, he chooses a light graphic line to emphasize the surface structure and bring the materiality of the object to life. It was no coincidence that Ehrhardt was called the “natural philosopher with a camera” in the 1930s. His photographs are, in the broadest sense, nature photographs. The book focuses on Ehrhardt's central themes in seven chapters and shows a selection of his best photographs of the mudflats, the Curonian Spit, crystals, shells and snails, corals and sponges, photomicrographs and landscapes in the compositional rigor that is so characteristic of his photographic style are. The illustrated book brings together 176 photographs of exceptional beauty, breathtaking diversity and masterful conciseness.