Verqu(e)erungen des Blicks: queere Ästhetik und Intimität im Werk von ringl+pit

Abstract

The contribution analyzes the multi-layered interrelations between the two photographers Grete Stern and Ellen Auerbach to highlight an underexposed dimension of their artistic collaboration under the name of ringl+pit. Focusing on Stern and Auerbach’s time living together in Berlin (1929–1933) until their flight caused by the Nazi seizure of power, this article will examine how ringl+pit’s work corresponded with contemporary emancipatory movements (such as the sexual liberation movement and the Jewish emancipation movement). Furthermore, it will draw on notions of intimacy and queerness and their correspondences with artistic movements of the 1920s and 1930s to demonstrate how they became stylistically and aesthetically influential dimensions for the work of ringl+pit.