Sequence and Seeing: The Photocollages of Josef Albers

Josef Albers, Marli Heimann, III-IV '31, alle während 1 stunde, 1931

Silver gelatin prints on paperboard

Josef Albers, Bergfahrt Tamazunchale, Jacala, Mexico, n.d.

Silver gelatin prints on paperboard

Josef Albers, 31.VII.55, 1955

Bergfahrt Tamazunchale, Jacala, Mexico, n.d.

This essay explores Josef Albers's idiosyncratic approach to photo collage from 1928-1962. While other writing about Albers's photography has often treated his later collages, mostly made up of 35mm contact prints, as inferior to the more stately collages Albers made at the Bauhaus, this essay considers Albers's collages as a single body of work. The essay concentrates on works made at the Bauhaus, works depicting the Alberses' many trips to Mexico, and works depicting Albers's two trips to Germany in the 1950s, when he was a guest teacher at the Hochschule für Gestaltung, Ulm. The essay is based on 5 years of research into Albers's photographic practice, and is thoroughly grounded in a deep understanding of Albers's biography and working practices.

in Heinz Liesbrock, ed., Josef Albers : Interaction (Köln: Verlag Walther König / New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018)