New ways of seeing

Unusual perspectives and new modes of composition set the tone in photography in the 1920s and ’30s. Steep-angled views, zoom-ins on details, serial repetitions of motifs—Neues Sehen (literally: new ways of seeing) violated the rules of visual expression and thus enriched classical photography. Technical developments heightened the pleasure taken in experimentation while at the same time increasing the demand for photographs in the press and advertising. In the 1930s, the National Socialist regime adopted the pictorial strategies of Neues Sehen for its propaganda. Here you can view photographs from the Städel Museum’s photography holdings featured in the exhibition “New Ways of Seeing: The Photography of the 1920s and ’30s”.