New. Objective.

Photography of the 1920‘s and 1930‘s

Exhibition at the Leopold Museum Vienna |
November 13, 2026 – February 28, 2027

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Sober, clear, objective – these adjectives describe the new way of seeing the world following the fallout of World War I. The type of “art photography”, practiced until 1914 especially by ambitious amateurs, with its romanticizing estheticism, had become obsolete. This new movement provided a direct, unadorned pictorial style, which accommodated the needs of the medium and represented a clear commitment to technological Modernism. In Germany, Ellen Auerbach, Aenne Biermann, Karl Blossfeldt, Alfred Ehrhardt, Albert Renger-Patzsch and August Sander adhered to a “new objective photography” which culminated in the 1929 exhibition Film und Foto organized by the German Werkbund. Championing a visual language in keeping with the times, the exhibition, which was shown in Vienna straight after its initial presentation in Stuttgart, impacted on the oeuvres of Austrian photographers, including Trude Fleischmann, Grete Kolliner, Rudolf Koppitz and Otto Skall.

Following central motifs and themes, the exhibition showcases in excess of one hundred preeminent artistic positions of New Photography from the 1920s and 30s and features a selection of works from renowned European museums, institutions and collections, as well as works from private collections that have never been displayed before.

(Text: Leopold-Museum)

“New Objectivity” at Ullstein in Berlin

The collaboration with select and influential photographers of the 1920s and 1930s lends the Ullstein photographic collection today an admirable sense of ease whenever an exhibition theme from that period is brought to the fore. Works by Yva, Frieda Riess, Nini and Carry Hess, and Charlotte Rudolph, on loan: The female photographers featured in this exhibition at Vienna’s Leopold Museum are well represented by Ullstein and exemplify, not least, the pivotal role women have played in the history of photography. Ullstein Publishing responded promptly and sensitively to these developments. By publishing the works in the publisher’s newspapers and magazines and by highlighting their origins and significance, the media live up to their goal: to showcase and capitalize on current events and modernity. See for yourself – this year in Vienna.

 

In the gallery, you can view a selection of original photographs from the ullstein bild collection.

You can find the complete collection at ullstein bild.