Foto-Auge (Photo-Eye): 76 Photos of the Period
A picture book of 76 photographs of the period, edited by the art critic Franz Roh and the typographer Jan Tschichold and published in Stuttgart in 1929 by Akademischer Verlag Dr. Fritz Wedekind.
What it is
A picture book of 76 photographs of the period, edited by the art critic Franz Roh and the typographer Jan Tschichold and published in Stuttgart in 1929 by Akademischer Verlag Dr. Fritz Wedekind. Tschichold designed the cover and the layout; the cover photo is El Lissitzky's self-portrait. The editors thank the organisers of the 1929 Werkbund exhibition "Film und Foto" for their help. Roh's essay "mechanism and expression" runs in German, French and English. He argues that a photograph's value lies in choosing a fragment of reality, not in imitating painting, that cameras are now simple enough for anyone, and he names five uses: the reality photo, the photogram, photomontage, photo with painting, and photo with typography. The plates run from Man Ray photograms and Moholy-Nagy's Paris drain to x-rays, aerial surveys, a police murder photo, and advertising leaflets by Piet Zwart and Max Burchartz.
Why read it now
Read it as the point where photography entered advertising layout as a language of its own. Roh's central case holds: the camera's power is in selection, crop and angle, and an amateur who chooses well beats a skilled technician who does not. That is the logic behind phone-shot creative and customer-made content, which the big ad platforms now recommend. His line that a photograph gives a more accurate notion of the goods than any drawing is the base of product photography, and the Zwart and Burchartz leaflets build photo and type as one unit, an early form of the headline and image lockup. His forecast that not handling a camera would soon count as illiteracy came true with the phone. What has dated: the all lower-case setting, and the hope that the new way of seeing would end kitsch within ten years. The essay is short and most of the book is pictures, which a transcription cannot show. Use: before a shoot, list five unusual views (from above, from below, a tight crop, a negative, a montage) and test two of them against your standard pack shot.
Passages worth keeping
the statement is right, that not to be able to handle a camera will soon be looked upon as equal to illiteracy.
يتوقع رو أن استعمال الكاميرا سيصبح مهارة أساسية مثل القراءة والكتابة، ومن لا يتقنها سيُعد كالأمي.
by a photograph we can gain a more accurate notion of the articles offered than by ever so suggestive a drawing.
الصورة الفوتوغرافية تعرض السلعة للمشتري بدقة لا يبلغها الرسم مهما كان موحيًا، ولذلك دخلت الإعلان بسرعة.
the choice of the object is already a creative action.
الإبداع في التصوير يبدأ من اختيار ما تصوره، قبل أي مهارة تقنية.
our book does not only mean to say “the world is beautiful”, but also: the world is exciting, cruel and weird.
الكتاب لا يعرض الجمال وحده، بل يعرض أيضًا ما يثير ويصدم ويبدو غريبًا، لأن الصورة القوية لا تحتاج أن تكون جميلة.
the use of photomontage for advertisements has already spread considerably, and also for outer book wraps (that appear so much more alive than the heavy, humdrum cloth covers they so mercifully conceal).
المونتاج الفوتوغرافي انتشر في الإعلانات وأغلفة الكتب، لأنه يمنحها حيوية لا تملكها الأغلفة القماشية الثقيلة المملة.
What it teaches best
Read the original archive.org
If this library is useful, leave an email
We send new patterns, ads, and notes when we add them. Name and phone are optional.
You are on the list
We will write when we add more library material.