What’s going on in the World in 1929? Interesting though Photograms of the Year is, you won’t find many answers therein. Each year a paragraph or two is devoted to photography in various countries. In Germany it was now the time of the Weimar Republic, a term coined by Hitler, characterised by hyperinflation, competing paramilitaries and general unrest. None of this is mentioned in the short essay on Germany which, instead, presents a word salad of little meaning such as “no longer the photography we have been calling artistic until a couple of years ago; not the photography based on the traditional principles of pictorial effect.”
“The Secret” shown above could be straight out of Teutonic mythology but is by a Manchester photographer. In some ways this reminds me of the paintings of Evelyn De Morgan as well as referencing back to the Pre-Raphaelites.
“Portrait”, at least gives a contemporary view of a flapper with its Art Deco overtones.
Wildlife photography is not well represented and I can’t help wondering whether this is a live stoat caught in action or a stuffed specimen posed for effect.
“The Terror of the Desert” is one of my favourites from this collection with it’s almost surreal depiction of desert and cloudscape.
In Pseud’s corner we are offered “A Thrush Sings” and “All Nature is But Art.” There are others but these two will suffice.
It’s quite kitsch but I find “Three Ducks” rather charming.
I’ll finish with this photograph of “Ulla Poulson,” a kind of portraiture that Photograms of the Year does so well.
