Albert Renger-Patzsch
Albert Renger-Patzsch was a German photographer during the 1920s. He was part of the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit). He rejected the idealisms of the previous generation, he wanted the camera to portray a faithful recording of the world. He photographs a huge range of subjects, it includes his early wildlife and botanical studies, images of traditional craftsmen, formal studies of mechanical equipment, commercial still lifes, and landscape and architectural studies. In 1928 he produced the book The world is beautiful. This was a collection of 100 pictures that symbolised his world. He looked at both the natural and man-made world. |
modern life is no longer thinkable without photography.
The New Objectivity |
"The New Objectivity (in German: Neue Sachlichkeit) is a term used to characterize the attitude of public life in Weimar Germany as well as the art, literature, music, and architecture created to adapt to it."
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Contrasting Pictures
We can see from these pictures that Albert Renger-Patzsch took a large variety of pictures. He contrasted his work between organic and geometric.
My Personal Response
Here is my response to Albert Renger-Patzsch's 'The World Is Beautiful'
The world is beautiful in 100 pictures
I began by research the artist’s work and studying what they think is beautiful and how they captured that in an image. The artist that this work is imitating is Albert Renger-Patzsch. Renger-Patzsch was a German Photographer from just after world war 1. His work is very precise, showing only what has to be in the picture, and nothing more for the viewer to know what the object is. In 'The world is beautiful' Renger-Patzsch photographed natural forms, industrial subjects and mass-produced objects. Especially the last two, these things were revolutionary at the time. While studying his work I have learnt about cropping and using as small as possible amount of the subject in a picture. He also worked in black and white, which i have adopted also.
I think that I took images a lot closer than I normally would. I experimented with the zoom seeing how close to an object you could get while still knowing what the object was. It was also interesting seeing what kind of subjects worked the best and which ones didn't so much. The process of the picture was that I would take the shot with most of the object in then I would crop it on photoshop, this allowed me to take more time over deciding which the most important part of the picture was. It was also important to have the pictures in black and white, and that was done in the camera meaning that I saw the pictures in black and white while taking them, as using the effect changes the image and so it was important to see it. I found the composition of his work to be quite challenging. Knowing what the perfect way to photograph a specific object is, is quite hard. I think that the realisation that the picture has to be the best way of photographing a subject rather than taking an ‘arty’ shot changed my idea of the images. I revised a few of my images at this point but some remain with more emotion than Renger-Patzsch would have used as this is my world and in those images that is how I see it. His view on the world had an enormous effect on his images and mine also.
My final outcome is presented on this website. The photos are ordered specifically and ordered to different aspects of this beautiful world. The starting pictures depict the natural world that we live in, mostly it’s bizarre and wonderful plant life. All the way to the end, with the weird objects that I chose to surround myself with. I was hoping to display the world from my eyes, what interests me and what I find beautiful. This work is very personal as this is my world, others would view some of these things as not beautiful and have included different things, but this one is my world. If I had more time I think I would have looked at different ways of presenting my work, maybe in a book form or an exhibition form. I hope that anyone that looks at this project will understand the world that I live in and think about how that differs from theirs.
I think that I took images a lot closer than I normally would. I experimented with the zoom seeing how close to an object you could get while still knowing what the object was. It was also interesting seeing what kind of subjects worked the best and which ones didn't so much. The process of the picture was that I would take the shot with most of the object in then I would crop it on photoshop, this allowed me to take more time over deciding which the most important part of the picture was. It was also important to have the pictures in black and white, and that was done in the camera meaning that I saw the pictures in black and white while taking them, as using the effect changes the image and so it was important to see it. I found the composition of his work to be quite challenging. Knowing what the perfect way to photograph a specific object is, is quite hard. I think that the realisation that the picture has to be the best way of photographing a subject rather than taking an ‘arty’ shot changed my idea of the images. I revised a few of my images at this point but some remain with more emotion than Renger-Patzsch would have used as this is my world and in those images that is how I see it. His view on the world had an enormous effect on his images and mine also.
My final outcome is presented on this website. The photos are ordered specifically and ordered to different aspects of this beautiful world. The starting pictures depict the natural world that we live in, mostly it’s bizarre and wonderful plant life. All the way to the end, with the weird objects that I chose to surround myself with. I was hoping to display the world from my eyes, what interests me and what I find beautiful. This work is very personal as this is my world, others would view some of these things as not beautiful and have included different things, but this one is my world. If I had more time I think I would have looked at different ways of presenting my work, maybe in a book form or an exhibition form. I hope that anyone that looks at this project will understand the world that I live in and think about how that differs from theirs.