Curated by Prof. Dr. Eckhardt Köhn
Rolf Tietgens (1911–84) is regarded one of the most important photographers of the 1930s, but only a handful of people in Germany are familiar with his oeuvre. His work fell into obscurity after he emigrated to New York at the end of 1938, threatened with persecution as a homosexual artist in Germany. Since he never returned to his homeland, his body of work remained forgotten for quite some time. Today his book Der Hafen (The Port), published by the renowned Heinrich Ellermann Verlag in 1939 to mark the 750th anniversary celebrations of the port of Hamburg, has to be considered one of the preeminent photo books of the 1930s. It can be regarded as the most sophisticated elaboration of this subject matter in the history of German photography.
Continue reading “Alfred Ehrhardt & Rolf Tietgens: The Port of Hamburg and the Northern Coast of Germany”