Die Reibe (The Grater)

Photograms are made by placing objects directly on or over a sheet of photographic paper and then exposing the paper to light. For this work Nerlinger used a small grater and a mesh sieve and likely employed a flashlight as a light source, moving the beam to create a three-dimensional effect. He hoped to put recent avant-garde experiments in photographic abstraction to work for advertising and created a portfolio of photograms combined with hand-painted typography to show potential clients. Here, the bold red 4 could refer to the price or quantity.