The Bauhaus School and Photography

The main thrust of the Bauhaus Design School was "form follows function."  It was a design belief that leaned toward a minimal approach with emphasis on clean lines, bold color and less is more.

What does this have to do with photography?  Until Lazaro Moho-Nagy joined the school the curriculum was centered on arts and crafts -photography being excluded.  It was 1923 when he introduced photography into the mix.  He introduced experimentation in photograms, collages and multiple exposures.  He moved photography beyond theory and practice into the "new seeing."  He considered photography as an art form "that has yet to get to anything like its full stature.

For me, his book "Vision in Motion" became a sort of photo bible for me.  He taught me to focus on the elements before me, experiment with light and shapes.  Photography is a vocabulary and you need to use every tool in that vocabulary to create what you see and feel.  And, that is basically what the images attached to this post demonstrate, simplicity of line, light and the use of double exposure to tell a story.  Photography is a grand experiment and we should explore it to the fullest.