In The Sand

Bauhaus Photography.

Moholy-Nagy quickly realized that the traditional rules of composition of painting no longer applied to photography, that in the fractional second a photograph occurred the camera could be moved in any direction, taking photos from bird's eye views or from below, to create a disorientating sense of movement. Here he contrasts the pattern of shadows in the sand with the human form. The photograph also reflects the new leisure class which developed in the Weimar Republic after World War I.

The legacy of Hungarian artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy is among the most cherished in the lineage of photographic art, and he can be defined as a visionary whose radical experiments with photography entirely re-imagined the possibilities for the medium. Working in the early 20th century when photography was not considered a form of high art, Moholy-Nagy actively sought to break down boundaries and find new languages of photographic discourse. In doing so, he left behind an oeuvre of visual ideas that have provided artistic license to a century’s worth of photographers to experiment boldly beyond the conventional definitions of what photography is expected to be.

Edition: 1 of 1