Gentle Rippling, from the series: The Courland Spit, 1934

About the Work

The trained organist Alfred Ehrhardt studied at the Bauhaus in Dessau in 1927/28, and it was there that he presumably first came into contact with photographic techniques. Yet it was not until 1933 that he began practicing the photography profession full-time. He had been accused of ‘cultural bolshevism’ and lost his job as a lecturer at the Hamburg State Art School because the Nazis considered his teaching practices too leftist and progressive. In photos of natural formations, Ehrhardt continued his naturalphilosophical studies of the painting and drawing of ornamental forms. He published his works in numerous photo books such as The Mudflats (1937), The Courland Spit (1938), and Crystals (1939), which proved immensely popular in the Nazi era and appeared in several editions.