Renger-Patzsch was a German photographer who looked at the world in a different way. He took things we see everyday and photographed them in a way to help us appreciate the way they are. The 'New Objectivity' is a movement that looks at the beauty in both nature and man-made objects and isolating the object from its surroundings. This movement helps to show the beauty of materials through using the formal elements of focus, light, shape, space and texture. Renger-Patzsch follows these outlines of the New Objectivity and makes his audience focus on what we would not normally see. Renger-Patzsch preferred to photograph the normal things we would see throughout our daily lives but in a way to make us realise what is around us. Renger-Patzsch explored the formal elements within his photographs and took them in a more abstract way, thinking about how the light could effect his objects and how this would make us see it differently.
For example you can see here how he has experimented with light to create the shadows from the glasses. He also experimented with lines and how they make you focus on the structure of objects. He has clearly thought closely about the structure of the image and the way the glasses have been positioned. The shadows from the glasses don't overlap, meaning each line is clear and it isn't confusing for the viewer to look at.
In 1928 he published 'The World is Beautiful', a book consisting of 100 photographs showing the detail and intesnity of both natural and man-made objects aorund us. The book embodies a different, and new, way of looking at the world and follows ideas from 'The New Objectivity'. Following this book, Renger-Patzsch was declared one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century.
Analysis
These are two of my favourite photographs by Renger-Patzsch because of their simplicity and how he has taken something we see every day and turned it into something we never see. Both images are taken from below the subject and taken upwards. Renger-Patzsch has taken structure into consideration on both images and has looked at the way the lines go from the subject and used them to structure the image and manipulate the view from the audience. The branches in the first image come from the tree and go outwards, and the viewers eye travels up the trunk and then out along the branches. The lines within the images go in different directions, in the second image the wires travel diagonally straight across the photo and there is no place in specific they have originated from. Like the first image, the lines in the second image travel out of the photo, meaning we don't know how long they are or how far they go on for. Both images have been taken in black and white, forcing you to focus on the detail instead of the colours, it makes you notice the coils in the second image and each branch in the first image, where normally you might be paying more attention to the coloured leaves around the brown branches. Only one image is natural, the other has has a man-made subject. This is Patzsch following the 'new Objectivity' and how we can see detail in both natural and unatural places. He has treated both subjects in the same way and is showing that, even man-made, unnatural, and possibly unnatractive things can have some beauty in our world.
My images in response to Albert Renger-Patzsch
In response to Albert Wenger-Patzsch, I went out and took pictures of things in every day life. I then turned them all black and white and cropped to the same size.
I think that these went well because they're taken in every day life and nothing was set up or planned. All of the images are what we see as you go through your day however I spent my time looking out for things to photograph. I kept in mind things would be in black and white and therefore looked out for objects with higher contrast, such as a tree against a grey sky. They all reflect what I see and instead I stopped to capture them. If I were to do this again I may think more about composition and look out for things less obvious, showing the small things in life we also don't see.