Slices of a Modern World

Ilse Bing initially taught herself photography to illustrate her research into Neo-classical architecture. In 1929 she bought a Leica camera and started to photograph new buildings in and around Frankfurt. The architect Mart Stam commissioned her to record several of his ambitious projects, including the Hellerhof housing development pictured here. Dizzy angles, flat plains and strong shadows were all part of a contemporary language of design pioneered by both the 'New Photography' and the new architecture.

In this group of photographs, objects, bodies and buildings - old and new - are seen through this modernist filter of steep perspectives, off-centre compositions and closely cropped details.