Hugo Schmölz.
I recently went to see an exhibition in liverpool at the Tate gallery, the exhibition was Otto Dix and August Sander’s portraying a nation. The works of art were all based from 1919 – 1933, which was an incredibly notorious time for Germany (both German artists) which you could see in their works. This influenced me to research further into German artists of this time and I came across Schmölz, a German photographer born in 1879 and father of Karl Hugo Schmölz one of the most interesting architecture photographers of his time living through major historic events.
I couldn’t help but notice the eeriness of his images, whether or not this is reminiscent of the time he was taking photographs, but they are all empty of people, with nobody in any of the shots. This does make you focus all your attention on the buildings and structures he would photograph. I really enjoy this in his work, having nothing to distract you other than following the lines and curves of the structures which is what you want from an architecture photographer. Compared to his son’s works which are much busier, but what I enjoy most about Schmölz’s work is the simplicity.
Bellow is Hugo Schmölz.
Bellow is Karl Hugo Schmölz.
Both these are very different images but you can tell Karl was influenced by his father in the fact his images are eerie but they are so much busier. you can also see the time differences in these images, the top one taken pre second world war and the second post world war. There is something nostalgic about photographs taken from this era, the buildings are all different, the scenery and the advertising everything had more character and told more of a story. I feel like a lot of places have lost some of this as our world has developed. The world was much different 100 years ago!
–TB
THHE 