Albert Renger-Patzsch: Joy before the Object

The great German photographer Albert Renger-Patzsch was a contemporary of Moholy-Nagy and Brecht and a close friend of Hermann Hesse, yet his work is little known in the English-speaking world. Born in Wurzburg in 1897, Renger-Patzsch was a member of the movement that came to be known as Neue Sachlichkeit ("New Objectivity"). His most famous book Die Welt ist schon (The World is Beautiful), published in 1928, immediately established him as one of the leading photographers in Germany. This volume brings together sixty-five of Renger-Patzsch's photographs, many of them never before published. Together they help trace the life, career, and influence of one of the century's most important photographers, and will be an essential resource for scholars, social historians, and students of photography.