Albert Braun with Mirror

Lotte Stam-Beese and Albert Braun, the sitter, were students at the Bauhaus School of Art and Design. Open in Germany from 1919 to 1933, the school offered a workshop-based curriculum that promoted the combination of fine and applied arts. Students were encouraged to create functional designs that were also experimental and embraced new technological advances—all in the hopes of creating a better society. Though photography was not one of the school’s official workshops, students often “played” with the medium as Braun and Stam-Beese did here. Braun holds the mirror in such a way that the reflection appears to complete his face.