Skip to content

Duo Exhibition

»100 years of bauhaus II: DAS WATT«

David Batchelder | Alfred Ehrhardt

Curated by Dr. Christiane Stahl

Alfred Ehrhardt’s first major photographic work DAS WATT (The Tidelands) (1933–1936) is an ode to nature. It is among the most outstanding visual achievements of the avant-garde photography of the 1930s and represents the crème de la crème of his photographic oeuvre. The artistic quality of this series remains unequalled, even among the masters of New Objectivity photography. Created during Josef Albers’s preliminary course at the Bauhaus in Dessau, the work reveals Ehrhardt’s fascination with the structures in the sand that emerged every day anew, formed by wind and water. These reminded him of his teachings on the nature of materials, in which his students were required to learn to discern the “structure, texture, and consistency” of materials. Ehrhardt’s concept for the image series was to look for the natural laws in the synergy of nature’s forces by comparing the form variations created anew each day. His typology of sandy-reef formations suggests a conscious connection between microcosm and macrocosm.

In contrast to Alfred Ehrhardt, US photographer David Batchelder (b. 1939) purposely uses a digital camera to coax astounding sand formations out of the coastlines of the Isle of Palms near his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina. Batchelder asserts these would have remained hidden to him using analog technology:

My ability to see has grown because I have been able to make and see many thousands of photographs. My vision has grown as a result. I see so many interesting things in the sand now that were there before, but beyond my vision.”

Batchelder purposely addresses human perception: the abstracting of the nature motif, reduced to a minute amount of information, generates inner visions. It seems nearly impossible not to discover something concrete in these images. Something within us strives to see faces, figures, a landscape, or a galaxy, and yet we are only looking down on a limited stretch of beach.

Unlike Ehrhardt, Batchelder is not interested in the laws of structure, but in the chaotic, strange, surreal, non-rational, in short: the world of dreams and the imagination. Batchelder’s play-like freeness contrasts with Ehrhardt’s objective structural order – science versus poetry.

David Batchelder, Ohne Titel / Untitled, Inkjet Print on Ilford Smooth Pearl, 90 x 60 cm © David Batchelder
David Batchelder, Ohne Titel / Untitled, Inkjet Print on Ilford Smooth Pearl, 90 x 60 cm © David Batchelder
David Batchelder, Ohne Titel / Untitled, Inkjet Print on Epson Enhanced Matte, 43,2 x 64,8 cm © David Batchelder
David Batchelder, Ohne Titel / Untitled, Inkjet Print on Epson Enhanced Matte, 43,2 x 64,8 cm © David Batchelder
Alfred Ehrhardt, Spuren fließenden Wassers im Sandboden / Traces of Flowing Water in the Sand, 1933–36 (späterer Abzug / later print 1967), 30 x 24,2 cm, Silbergelatineabzug / silver gelatin print © Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung / bpk
Alfred Ehrhardt, Wind- und Wasserstrukturen im Sand / Structures of Wind and Water in the Sand, 1933–36 (späterer Abzug / later print 1967), 30 x 24,2 cm, Silbergelatineabzug / silver gelatin print © Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung / bpk

Framework program

For further details on all framework events please visit the website of the Alfred Ehrhardt Foundation.

Sunday, April 28, 2019, 2 pm
ALFRED & ME, Artist talk with David Batchelder and Dr. Christiane Stahl, Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung. Held in English.

Wednesday, May 29, 2019, 7 pm
Film screening and talk: Alfred Ehrhardt’s film Urkräfte am Werk (1937) in the film Die Deutschstunde (Autumn 2019). Christiane Stahl talks to Darius Ghanai, who designed the title sequence, about the adventures of searching for subjects, lost film reels, and digital reproductions. Held in German.

Wednesday, June 26, 2019, 7 pm
In the series Literaturhaus der Fotografie: Terra Poetry. An Essayist Approach to Alfred Ehrhardt’s and David Batchelder’s Tideland Photographs by Daniel Falb, Moderation: Thomas Böhm (radioeins: Die Literaturagenten). Held in German.

Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung / Alfred Ehrhardt Foundation Berlin

Apr 27 — July 7, 2019
Opening Reception: Friday, April 26, 7 – 9 pm
Framework program: please see above

[btn_ical_feed]

Auguststraße 75, 10117 Berlin
[Mitte | Mitte]

Opening hours: Tue – Sun 11 am – 6 pm, Thu 11 am – 9 pm

Admission free

Current photography exhibitions/events recommended in…
Berlin | Mitte

Robert Morat Galerie | Jessica Backhaus »Plein Soleil«

CHAUSSEE 36 Photography | »Metamorphosis« Heinz Hajek-Halke’s Photomontages & New Image-Makers

Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung | Janet Laurence »The Burnt Sea«

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung | »Do you have something to fight for?«

Lothar Wolleh Raum | Lothar Wolleh »Der Feind und seine Menschen«

Mitte Museum | THE LINK to Bettina Cohnen »Duett der Moderne«

PiB Guide Nº60 MAY/JUNE 2025 © PiB ⸺ Photography in Berlin. COVER PHOTO · TITELBILD PiB Guide Nº60: Fairies IV/2, 2020 © Kathrin Linkersdorff / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. Solo show »Microverse« at Haus am Kleistpark in Berlin-Schöneberg, read more on page 4! Image on page 4: Microverse III/3/2025/Sc-M510/19.6. – 10.10.24 © Kathrin Linkersdorff / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn +++ 2 photos on the right double page spread (p. 5), on the left: © Nelly Rau-Häring, Potsdamer Platz Im Blau, Nov. 1999 – Juni 2000, on the right: R: © André Kirchner, Bessel-, Ecke Charlottenstraße, Kreuzberg 2000 from the group show Berlin eins: »Die 90er Jahre« with André Kirchner, Nelly Rau-Häring, Peter Thieme at Haus am Kleistpark.

PiB Guide Nº60 MAY/JUNE 2025 © PiB ⸺ Photography in Berlin. COVER PHOTO · TITELBILD PiB Guide Nº60: Fairies IV/2, 2020 © Kathrin Linkersdorff / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. Solo show »Microverse«  at Haus am Kleistpark in Berlin-Schöneberg, read more on page 4! Image on page 4: Microverse III, 3/2025/Sc-M510/19.6. – 10.10.24 © Kathrin Linkersdorff / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. +++ 2 photos on the right double page spread (p. 5), L: © Nelly Rau-Häring, Potsdamer Platz Im Blau, Nov. 1999 – Juni 2000, R: © André Kirchner, Bessel-, Ecke Charlottenstraße, Kreuzberg 2000 from the group show Berlin eins: »Die 90er Jahre« with André Kirchner, Nelly Rau-Häring, Peter Thieme at Haus am Kleistpark. +++ PiB Guide Editors / V.i.S.d.P. / Art Direction: Julia Schiller & Oliver Schneider

Current print issue
PiB Guide Nº60
MAY/JUNE 2025

#pibguide

Discover great photography exhibitions in Berlin & beyond in PiB’s bi-monthly print issue, the PiB Guide! The current edition has been published as a booklet, A6 format · 28 pages · English & German · worldwide shipping.

Order

Aktuelle Printausgabe
PiB Guide Nº60
MAY/JUNE 2025

#pibguide

Entdecke großartige Fotoausstellungen in Berlin & darüberhinaus in PiBs zweimonatlicher Printausgabe, dem PiB Guide! Die aktuelle Ausgabe ist erschienen als Booklet im DIN A6 Format · 28 Seiten · Deutsch & Englisch · weltweiter Versand.

Bestellen

PiB's E-Newsletter

Sign up for PiB's free, weekly eNewsletter and stay up-to-date in Berlin's vibrant photography scene! Assembled with love once a week in English & German for an international audience of photography enthusiasts, collectors, curators and journalists.

Free sign-up!
#pibnewsletter – the weekly, digital E-Newsletter by PiB Photography in Berlin
»PiB — Photography in Berlin« | PiB’s website, PiB’s weekly E-Newsletter, and the bi-monthly published PiB Guide: page 12 & 13 from the PiB Guide Nº15 Nov/Dec 2017; feat. the exhibition Evelyn Hofer »Cities, Interiors, Still Lifes. Photographs 1962 – 1997« at Galerie Springer Berlin; image credits: Queensboro Bridge, New York, 1964 / Coney Island, New York, 1965 / Girl with Bicycle, Dublin, 1966, all 3 photos © Evelyn Hofer, Estate Evelyn Hofer.
»PiB — Photography in Berlin« | PiB’s website, PiB’s weekly E-Newsletter, and the bi-monthly published PiB Guide: page 12 & 13 from the PiB Guide Nº15 Nov/Dec 2017; feat. the exhibition Evelyn Hofer »Cities, Interiors, Still Lifes. Photographs 1962 – 1997« at Galerie Springer Berlin; image credits: Queensboro Bridge, New York, 1964 / Coney Island, New York, 1965 / Girl with Bicycle, Dublin, 1966, all 3 photos © Evelyn Hofer, Estate Evelyn Hofer.

You & PiB

Reach a dedicated audience of art & photography enthusiasts in Berlin & beyond – by presenting your exhibition/event or institution/product/service with PiB!

Read more
#Tags for this article:
Cart
Back To Top
Search