“SIMPLE, STRIKING AND CAREFULLY CRAFTED”: EHRHARDT’S MODERNIST DAS WATT, 1937

EHRHARDT, Alfred. Das Watt [Mudflats]. Hamburg: Heinrich Ellermann, 1937. Quarto, original beige cloth. $550.

First edition of this abstract modernist treatment of mudflats created by the receding tide, with 96 finely-screened duotones.

“The modernist New Vision style was characterized by a tendency to find subjects both in the city and in nature that made good abstract or semi-abstract photographs… The best of this genre is arguably Alfred Ehrhardt’s Das Watt… His photographs of a commonplace subject—mudflats after the tide has receded—are simple, striking and carefully crafted… He chooses the low sun of morning or evening, shooting either directly into the light or with strong sidelighting to make the most of the ripple effects left by the departing tide” (Parr & Badger, 112). Without dust jacket. Marginal pencil notation on page 12.

Only a few stray spots of foxing, moderate soiling to original cloth. An extremely good copy.