Untitled (Otti Berger on a Balcony of the Bauhaus Studio Building in Dessau), 1930

About the Work

Unexpected perspectives and bold compositions heralded a new pictorial aesthetic at the Bauhaus. The portrait is a rigorous composition in which the model Otti Berger serves as a focal point in the midst of the serially arranged balconies of the Dessau Studio House façade. Max Pfeiffer Watenphul staged the costumed Grete Willers in a role play. Both photographers had already been experimenting with photography before it was introduced as a teaching subject at the Bauhaus in 1929. The school had set out to dissolve the boundary between free and applied art by adopting creative approaches to various forms of artistic expression. Under pressure from the National Socialists, it would cease operations just three years later.