2024-03-15 15:40:39
The name of Paul Wolff seems to have fallen into oblivion today, even across the Rhine where he was the most famous photographer of the interwar period. Forced to leave Alsace after the defeat of 1918, he settled in Frankfurt where the doctor he had been until then exchanged his stethoscope for a Leica. Associated with the photographer Alfred Tritschler, he founded a successful agency which, under their dual signature, produced nearly 700,000 photos over three decades which celebrated the modernity of Germany.
The more gifted of the two is undoubtedly the autodidact Paul Wolff. From his earliest youthful works, he demonstrated great technical mastery as evidenced by his images of old Strasbourg produced in 1912 with a heavy plate chamber. About ten years later, in the vein of the New Objectivity, it was still in the darkroom that he produced hieratic portraits of zoo animals or close-ups of plants in the style of Albert Renger- Patzsch and Karl Blossfeldt, this last series forms of life (Formes de vie), published in 25,000 copies in 1931, brought him his first editorial success.
The small format revolution
His encounter with the Leica in 1926 would give a decisive turning point to his career. Marketed from 1925, the small format roll negative camera revolutionized photographic practice. Robust and handy, the device fits in a pocket, allows you to take several images in succession and allows shooting without a tripod or flash. This technological leap will open the way to photojournalism, but also allow new aesthetic perspectives with contrasting shadow plays, off-center framing, high or low angle, in movement, on the spot. This innovative trend of the “New Vision” found its consecration in the major exhibition, “Film und Foto” (FIFO), which was held in Stuttgart in 1929 and in which several photos by Paul Wolff were exhibited.
Training on the “Olympia” large hill. Ski jumping during the Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 1936. Christian Brandstätter Collection. / Paul Wolff / IMAGNO/Austrian Archives
The photographer will first put this dynamic aesthetic at the service of his advertising and documentary productions on behalf of large industrial groups such as Opel, Siemens, Miele or Bayer and the major projects undertaken by the Third Reich. But it was above all as a conduit to an increasingly numerous public of amateur photographers that he established his popularity. In 1934, Paul Wolff wrote a guide for him My experiences with the Leica which became a true bestseller, translated into several languages and republished several times.
His images are as much photographic lessons as a celebration of modern life which sees the development of tourism and leisure: liner trips, car rides, motorcycle excursions with picnic stops, sea bathing in seaside resorts in vogue, water skiing or winter sports. In 1936, Paul Wolff covered the Olympic Games in Berlin and Garmisch-Partenkirchen; his reports were the subject of a successful book the same year.
A blind spot
Clear and dynamic, his perfectly composed and lit images magnify life under the Third Reich: celebration of the sporting body, glorification of work and technology. So many themes dear to the National Socialist Party to which he never belonged but which his work echoes. “We must not forget that the photographs presented here were taken before 1939 and that the censorship exercised by Goebbels’ ministry was formidablefrom 1933″, recalls photography historian Gilles Mora, curator of the exhibition, while recognizing that“no subject will escape Paul Wolff”.
Effectively. Paul Wolff is the author of the portrait of Hitler published on the front page of Times in 1936, as well as several photographs showing him on the podium or saluting soldiers in the company of Goebbels. Aesthetic images of crowds with outstretched right arms and glorified Hitler Youth testify to his contribution to the staging of the Nazi regime and its dignitaries. “This is a minor angle in his overall production, it is mentioned in the texts which accompany the exhibition, but showing them would have focused attention on it and would have betrayed the spirit of his work,” supports Gilles Mora. Still, walking through an exhibition where most of the photographs were taken in Germany in the 1930s without seeing either a uniform or a swastika is perplexing.
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Bio express
1887. Born in Mulhouse, then in Prussian Alsace.
1914-1918. Army doctor in France and Russia.
1919. Forced departure from Strasbourg, installation in Frankfurt am Main.
1920-1925. Image taker for industrial films.
1927. Foundation of the agency “Dr Paul Wolff & Tritschler”.
1944. Destruction of his home and his archives during an aerial bombardment.
1951. Death in Frankfurt am Main.
“Paul Wolff (1887-1951): The man with the Leica”, free entry until April 14 at the Pavillon populaire in Montpellier. Catalog published by Éditions Hazan, 144 p., €24.95.
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