Ramona Schacht: From the Bauhaus to Crimea — Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung, Berlin

Between 1954 and 1963 the photographer and film-maker Alfred Ehrhardt (1901–84), a Bauhaus-trained artist best known for his studies of dunes, ice and mineral form, worked on commission for the tobacco company Reemtsma. Those pictures have stayed at the edge of his reputation. The Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung in Berlin has put them at the centre of an exhibition, and asked a contemporary artist to answer them.

Ramona Schacht: From the Bauhaus to Crimea. A Visual Examination of Alfred Ehrhardt’s Tobacco Series pairs the historical industrial photographs with Schacht’s new series Photography’s Claim to Property. Bilder im Auftrag Reemtsmas — tableau works, graphic interventions, textile jacquard pieces and a filmed conversation, with living tobacco plants grown by the artist standing among them. Ehrhardt’s 1956 film Die Welt des Tabaks is shown alongside archival material from the Reemtsma collection dating from the 1920s to the 1950s.

The question the show asks is what a commissioned photograph is for: which political, economic and physical arrangements an industrial commission makes visible, and which ones it is designed to keep out of frame. The exhibition is curated by Stefanie Regina Dietzel.

Practical details

• When: 12 September – 20 December 2026 (opening Friday 11 September, 7–9pm, with the artist present)
• Where: Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung, Auguststraße 75, 10117 Berlin, Germany
• Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 11am–6pm; closed on public holidays
• Curator: Stefanie Regina Dietzel

Full details are on the foundation’s own site. Cultural Heritage Online lists this exhibition for readers planning a visit to Berlin; admission is handled directly by the foundation.