A Radical Tradition - Eine radikale Tradition: Heimat photography in the Third Reich

A unique re-assessment of the contribution and impact of select photographers of the 'volk' whose work and reputation benefited significantly from being patronised by the National Socialist state and who are linked by their use of physiognomy. The German creative photographers to be examined presented their subjects as inhabitants of an idealised space and underlined a radical traditionalism relating to ‘Blood and Soil’ (Blut und Boden). As somatic studies, whether tightly cropped or framed in the landscape space, they suggest a visual connectivity with the past through customs, traditional dress and, in particular, the faces and healthy, rugged bodies as representative of breeding and ‘good blood’. That is, they appear as being connected to the past whilst being presented as the racial custodians of the future.