The building theory classes at the Bauhaus focused on imparting a functional understanding of architecture. Building had become a science. As a result, the ADGB Trade Union School was designed logically from the inside out, with the requirements of the residents and dictates of the natural environment determining the form arising from the environmental and materials studies. Walter Peterhans’ photographs of the school images illustrate both the architect’s intentions for the building and the environmental studies conducted by Bauhaus students.

Walter Peterhans’ lessons focused on the technical, chemical and optical-physical aspects of the medium of photography, knowledge of which he considered essential for the realisation of truly creative work.

Staged like a still life, the photograph displays few of the traits of a portrait, but rather focusses on the play of light and shadow on the various surfaces and structures as well as the idiosyncratic contrast between the suppleness of the hair and the stiffness of the fabric strips.

Without the meaningful title the observer would marvel at a masterfully photographed still life with a distinctly feminine aura, artfully arranged in the base of a ceramic bowl. However, the title lifts the work out of the material world and releases a flood of associations.

Versatile interdisciplinary experimentation with the medium of photography began early at the Bauhaus, but only in 1929 was a photography class established, led by photographer Walter Peterhans.

Peterhans was a photographic perfectionist. He used tweezers to arrange his still lifes millimetre by millimetre. He demanded the same devotion to technical precision from the students in his photography class.