The Tidelands (German: Das Watt), created by Alfred Ehrhardt between 1933 and 1936, is recognized as a significant contribution to avant-garde photography, marking the beginning of Ehrhardt's photographic career. A Bauhaus-trained polymath—musician, painter, designer, and teacher—Ehrhardt turned to photography after being dismissed from his academic position in 1933 by the Nazi regime. Set in the tidal flats of Cuxhaven, Germany, this series reflects his innovative melding of scientific inquiry, Bauhaus design principles, and aesthetic abstraction, offering an enduring vision of nature’s transformative power.
Produced amidst the rising tides of political oppression, The Tidelands resonates as a quiet defiance against ideological constraints. Ehrhardt’s fascination with the fleeting forms created by wind and water allowed him to explore abstraction in ways that evaded the cultural prohibitions of the time. Inspired by Naturphilosophen ideals and his Bauhaus training under figures like Kandinsky and Albers, he approached the tidelands as both a subject and a canvas, capturing their dynamic patterns as a metaphor for universal harmony.
Thematically, the series examines the synergy between chaos and structure, microcosm and macrocosm. Ehrhardt’s work uncovers the delicate interplay of natural forces shaping the tidal flats, presenting these ephemeral patterns as evidence of nature’s inherent order. By isolating these forms within carefully constructed compositions, he invites viewers to see beyond the surface into the rhythm and symmetry of the natural world.
Aesthetically, the photographs emphasize abstraction through high-contrast black-and-white imagery. Ehrhardt’s meticulous framing isolates geometric patterns within the sand, while his manipulation of light and shadow creates a sense of depth and dynamism. The minimalist compositions, often devoid of human presence, focus entirely on the tidal flats, where intricate details transform into universal symbols.
Technically, Ehrhardt employed a Zeiss-Ikon camera paired with a Zeiss Tessar 1:4.5 lens, producing a series of detailed, texturally rich images. Drawing on his Bauhaus material studies, he captured the "structure, texture, and consistency" of the tidelands, applying systematic observation to create an aesthetic harmony grounded in scientific precision. His photographic methodology reflects a fusion of New Objectivity’s typological focus and New Vision’s experimental ethos.
The Tidelands emerged in two forms: first as the exhibition Wind und Sand at the Hamburger Kunstgewerbeverein (1936), then as the photobook (Ellermann, 1937). Renewed visibility came through exhibitions at the Alfred Ehrhardt Foundation (Berlin, 2014) and KYOTOGRAPHIE (Ryosokuin, Kyoto, 2019), alongside a 2014 facsimile by Éditions Xavier Barral—together clarifying the series’ dual life as a carefully ordered book and a gallery presentation focused on abstraction and material study.
