Atikah-cigarette

Katt Both studied at the Bauhaus from 1924 to 1928 under László Moholy-Nagy. Although photography was not being formally taught at the Bauhaus at that time, Moholy-Nagy was doing some extraordinary experimentation outside the confines of the academy. Both was studying furniture design but clearly became aware of her master’s photographic techniques and, in particular, his use of what he called ‘typofoto’, combining typefaces with photographic imagery. After leaving the Bauhaus, Both worked as a designer in several parts of Germany including Berlin. After 1945 she became an architect in Kassel where she continued to work until her death in 1985.

‘Atikah-cigarette’ was clearly a promotion for a cigarette company, showing the brand in the form of a gigantic cigarette towering over a map of Europe. It rises up from the industrial heartland shown on the map, possibly suggesting a factory chimney. This is in not an image that would work well today with our fears of pollution and our knowledge of the poisonous effects of smoking. However, at the time it could have summoned up associations between the heroic aspects of modern life and smoking cigarettes. Industrialisation and modernity were invariably considered inseparable during this time between the wars. There is a sinister prescience about this image as it was created shortly before the Second World War. The shadow cast by the column, which has also been likened to a great cannon, falls across Denmark onto the North Sea and the Orkney Islands.

© Art Gallery of New South Wales Photography Collection Handbook, 2007