Six Original Silver Gelatin Prints from the NS-Propaganda Exhibition: "Deutsches Volk, deutsche Arbeit Ausstellung Berlin, 21.4-3.6. 1934 : Ausstellungsgelände Kaiserdamm.", Ausstellungsgelände Kaiserdamm and Gemeinnützige berliner Ausstellungs- und Messe-Gesellschaft, 1934"
Berlin: Hein Gorny, 1930s. Original photograph(s). Loose leaf. Silver gelatin prints (5 1/2 x 9 1/8" to 6 7/8 x 9 1/8") mounted to heavy paper (app. 7 x 10"), housed in a plain office portfolio. Two of the photographs with Gorney's signature in margin below the photographs and a stamp of his Berlin studio at the Kurfürstendamm on verso. Hein Gorny was known for his work in the style of "New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit)," particularly for his experimental as well as commercial photography.
The photographs depict large-scale photomontages displayed in spacious galleries, three of the them with textual descriptors: "Das Jahr 1932 Selbstauflösung (The Year 1932 Self-made Disintegration)," referring to the tumultuous year of the Dissolving of the Reichstag. "Winter-Hilfswerk des deutschen Volkes (Winter Relief of the German People 1933 1934)," and "Die Arbeitsschlacht (Work Battle)," a 1933–34 propaganda campaign by the Nazis to fight unemployment. The three photographs without descriptors are part of the campaign "Die Arbeitsschlacht, showing a gallery devoted to the construction of the Autobahn, exhibiting five large-scale photographs and a landscape model up front in one image, the second shows working crews constructing the freeway in a mountainous region, and the third one with showing 'typical Aryan' workers and families on the wall left of the viewer and a one-dimensional giant white tree at center right.
Hein Gorny's illustrious career started after his apprenticeship as a carpenter in Hannover where he connected to the brass of the Kestnergesellschaft. His project portraying the cultural philosopher Theodor Lessing led to his meeting Lessing's daughter Ruth who later became his wife. In 1927 he met Alfred Renger-Patzsch during an exhibition of the photographer's work at the Kestnergesellschaft. After several unsuccessful attempts to obtain foreign work permissions during the Nazi reign, his wife Ruth was of Jewish descent, Gorny returned to Hannover and in 1935 moved to Berlin with his wife. In 1935 he and his friend Karl Theodor Gremmler took over the studio of Lotte Jacobi located at the Kurfürstendamm. In the same year Gorny was appointed to the German Photographers Association (Gesellschaft Deutscher Lichtbildner) and was a member from 1936 to 1938. His emigration to the USA failed due to the fact that his wife didn't receive a working permit. His difficulties during the NS reign continued until the end of the war. In 1972 Hein Gorny was honored with a retrospective of his work at the Spectrum Photogalerie (Sprengel Museum Hannover). Posthumously Gorny's photographs were widely exhibited all across Europe. Paper frames with same smudging and browning, photos in part slightly bent, minimal rubbing. Very good condition. Item #47474
Price: $4,500.00