Board_Advisors_etc 3..5

the Soviet Union to Germany and to working-class
culture and society worldwide.

The Founding of the Arbeiter-Fotograf

In 1926, the editorial staff of the AIZ launched a
competition, inviting their readers to provide the
magazine with documentary photographs. This led
to the creation of a center for amateur photogra-
phers for the purpose of exchanging experiences
and passing on photographic commissions. These
loosely-knit groups of worker photographers in
Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, Halle, Dresden, Stutt-
gart, and subsequently in smaller towns were trans-
formed by Mu ̈nzenberg together with Walter
Tygor, another Communist party functionary,
into the formalVereinigung der Arbeiter-Fotogra-
fen Deutschlands(Association of Worker Photo-
graphers of Germany) in 1926. Mu ̈nzenberg’s
publishing company, Der neue deutsche Verlag
(The New German Publishing Company), financed
the formation of the organization, which was
designed to bring people together under the banner
of working class solidarity. Worker photographer
associations eventually were established through-
out Europe in Switzerland, Holland, Austria,
France, Czechoslovakia, and England, producing
picture material for the AIZ and other leftist pub-
lications. The Workers Film and Photo League,
established in New York in 1930 (later The Photo
League), shared a common sponsor with the Ger-
man association of worker photographers, namely
the IAH. The worker photographer could represent
well everyday industrial life replete with social class
differences, yet they fell short in terms of the quan-
tity and quality of picture material needed by
worker illustrated magazines and leftist leaflets
and pamphlets, among other publications.
The association of worker photographers struc-
tured itself around networks of local chapters that
offered instruction, informal exhibitions, and
access to equipment. Members did not need to
join the Communist party as the association was
intended to be free of party politics. They repre-
sented a broad range of political viewpoints, bound
together by a socialist world view. The association
fulfilled its own social mandate by keeping unem-
ployed workers from ‘‘indifference and dullness’’
and providing them with more or less useful di-
versions during the acute economic crisis of the
Great Depression.
As of late 1926, Mu ̈nzenberg, as chief editor and
director, issued a monthly member magazineDer
Arbeiter-Fotograf, Mitteilungsblatt der Vereinigung

der Arbeiter Fotografen(the Worker Photographer,

Journal of the Association of Worker Photogra-

phers, AF), renamedOffizielles Organ der Vereini-

gung der Arbeiter Fotografen Deutschlands(Official

Organ of the Association of the Worker Photogra-

phers of German) as of the eighth issue. The maga-

zine addressed photographic technique and the

worker photographers’ political purpose. Worker

photography aimed to show the world the way con-

temporary life is through photographs taken from

the subjective perspectives of the ‘‘class eye.’’ The

worker photographer was encouraged to become a

reporter and use a series of five or six photographs of

happenings that would be of general interest to the

workers. Soviet photography modeled itself upon

the AF as of 1928. The National Socialists deci-

mated the worker-photographer movement and the

last official publication appeared in March 1933.

Impact of Worker Photography

Mu ̈nzenberg’s innovation as a pioneering newspa-

per publisher was the creation of a media appara-

tus upon a plurality of locations and collaborations

in the production and distribution of print and

picture media. He developed a new type of news-

paper as exemplified by the weekly AIZ. The AIZ

served as a model for weekly illustrated newspapers

on an international level: from the Soviet Union’s

international illustrated magazine,USSR in Con-

struction, to the French weekly illustrated newspa-

per,Regards. The magazine’s synthetic montage

layout demonstrated the extent to which the photo-

graph could be manipulated to convey a political

message and to influence its readers. American

publisher Henry Luce sent Daniel Longwell, the

editor in charge of planningLife, to Germany to

study the illustrated publications.

CristinaCuevas-Wolf

Seealso:Agitprop; Documentary Photography; His-

tory of Photography: Interwar Years; Photography

in Germany and Austria; Photo League; Propa-

ganda; Socialist Photography

Further Reading

Bo ̈strom, Jorg. ‘‘Das einzelne Fotograf in der Gruppe; Die

Kollektive Bildform.’’ From the series, ‘‘Gestaltungsfra-

gen an Arbeiterfotografen.’’ Arbeiterfotografie 29

(March/May 1982): 34ff.

Bottcher, Paul.Der Arbeiter-Korrespondent: Winke und

Aufgaben fu ̈r Berichterstatter der Proletarischen Presse:

Mit Anhang: Der Arbeiterfotograf. Berlin: Vereinigung

internationaler Verlagsanstalten, 1927.

WORKER PHOTOGRAPHY