Roaring Twenties: Photography In The 1920's

Roaring Twenties Photography

Post War, people needed a new escape, a new way to express themselves. War was a very serious time in people's lives. Everyone saw things that no one should have never experienced. A lot of these people could use all this, traumatic experience and turn it into art. Photography in the 1920's became a way to express your emotions. Photography was a new era immediately following the Great War. It brought a new vision. Even though most photographers struggled for artistic recognition throughout the early twentieth century, but most became well known for being creative with their art. Photography goes through extraordinary changes in the early parts of the twentieth century.

Photography wasn't for just a specific class of people though. During this time, because of assembly lines, which is mass production cameras were affordable for everyone which is what the inventors of each specific type of camera wanted. They wanted to see the general public taking snapshots of everything. In the 1920's, camera construction began to change. The cameras were becoming less and less made of wood and more and more made of metal. The cameras would also be accented with pieced of nickel, leather or chrome. (www.licm.org.uk/livingImage1920Room.html)

Walter Gropius is one of these soldiers. He studied architecture and art his entire life. When he returned from war, he opened the Bauhaus House. By today's standards, the Bauhaus House is basically an art school. Gropius built this school to get away from the experience he had at the front. He wanted to forget. The school also allowed the students to do the same. Art allows the creator to express themselves in any way they choose.