Arbeit! Constructivism Bauhaus Paul Wolff Documentary Photography

FIRST EDITION OF PAUL WOLFF’S ARBEIT!, 1937, A CELEBRATION OF INDUSTRIALISM IN THE BAUHAUS TRADITION, WITH 200 DRAMATIC PHOTOGRAVURE PLATES

WOLFF, Paul. Arbeit! Berlin: Volk und Reich; Frankfurt am Main: H. Bechold, (1937). Square quarto, original blind-stamped brown paper-covered boards, original photographic dust jacket.   

First edition of Wolff’s highly influential celebration of German industrialism, with 200 photogravure plates in the tradition of Renger-Patzch’s Eisen und Stahl (1931). Beside "Schwarzes Revier" by Heinrich Hauser, "Metal" by Germaine Krull, "Fabrik" by Jakob Tuggener and "Eisen und Stahl" by Albert Renger-Patzsch one of the best ever published industrial ( industry ) photography books.


Rare photographic Nazi propaganda on the importance of the German workforce in Hitler's Third Reich. Illustrated throughout with captioned reproductions of b/w photographs showing the construction of the Autobahn, the Siemenswerk in Berlin, farmers, factory workers, drills and activities of the Freiwillige Arbeitsdienst, construction and maintenance of railroads, etc. Text in German, gothic script.

German photographer Paul Wolff, often working in collaboration with Alfred Tritschler, produced a number of exceptional photobooks through the 1920s and ‘30s, at a time when Constructivism and the Bauhaus influenced many with visions “of an industrialized and socialized society” that placed Germany at “the forefront of European photography” (Parr & Badger, 86). Arbeit! is particularly noted for its architectural framing and lighting of massive machinery, its striking portraits of factory workers, and is frequently aligned with works such as Lewis Hine’s Men at Work (1932) and Albert Renger-Patzsch’s Eisen und Stahl (1931). Introduction by Paul Ehrhardt. Text in German, captions in German, English and French.

Open publication - Free publishing - More work

Open publication - Free publishing - More photography