Self-Portrait as Bauhaus Ghost. Bauhaus Dessau, Germany.
Bauhaus Museum Dessau information board. Dessau, Germany.
Copy of 'Frankfurter Allgemeine' reporting on unprecedented US military operations in Venezuela. Photograph made on-route to Dessau. Berlin, Germany.
Exterior of the Bauhaus Archive Dessau, Located in an old brewery in the industrial outskirts of the city. Dessau, Germany.
Empty Beer Bottles. Dessau, Germany
Self-Portrait with Triadic Ballet Costume. Dessau, Germany.
Electrical Box with torn anti-far-right poster. Dessau, Germany.
Custom Mask by Matthias Lipeck and Torsten Blume based on a design by Oskar Schlemmer. Dessau, Germany.
Fragment of Granite from the original Bauhaus floor. Dessau, Germany.
Self-Portrait with Triadic Ballet Costume. Dessau, Germany.
Preparations for the Bahuas100 festival 'To The Core', which celebrates 100 years of the Bauhaus in Dessau, which has faced opposition from the far-right AFD party. Dessau, Germany.
Protester at a memorial demonstration for the 20th Anniversary of the death of Oury Jalloh, an asylum seeker who was found dead in police custody in Dessau in 2005. Dessau, Germany.
Lamp Post with Political Stickers. Dessau, Germany.
Self-Portrait with Triadic Ballet Costume. Dessau, Germany.
Youth holding an anti-fascist flag at Oury Jalloh Memorial Demonstration. Dessau, Germany
Prellerhaus Balconies (Old Bauhaus Student Accommodation). Bauhaus Dessau, Dessau, Germany.
Police talk with organisers of Oury Jalloh memorial demonstration outside Dessau train station. Dessau, Germany.
Self-Portrait with Triadic Ballet Costume. Dessau, Germany.
Bauhaus Dessau. Dessau, Germany.
House from The Torten Estate, designed by Walter Gropius. One of several attempts buy the Bauhaus to develop new kinds of social housing in Germany. Dessau, Germany.
"Metall" Sign for an exhibition on the history of metal in relation to the Bauhaus. Bauhaus Dessau, Dessau, Germany.
Self-Portrait as Bauhaus Ghost. Prellerhaus (the original student accommodation), Bauhaus Dessau, Germany.
Doorway to Paul Klee's studio. Meisterhäuser (Master's Houses), Dessau, Germany.
Reproduction of the "Table Lamp" by Wilhelm Wagenfeld and Carl Jakob Jucker. Bauhaus Dessau, Dessau, Germany.
Self-Portrait as Bauhaus Ghost. Prellerhaus, Bauhaus Dessau, Germany.
Sign post with Political Stickers. Torten Estate, Dessau, Germany.
3D-printed model of a character by Oskar Schlemmer. Bauhaus Dessau, Dessau, Germany.
Self-Portrait as Bauhaus Ghost. Prellerhaus, Bauhaus Dessau, Germany.
Sound System belonging to local artists that populate the disused industrial areas in Dessau. Dessau, Germany.
Pharmacy Bike Rack ('Health Centre at the Bauhaus'). Dessau, Germany.
Self-Portrait as Bauhaus Ghost. Prellerhaus, Bauhaus Dessau, Germany.
Warning Sign. Dessau, Germany.
Torten Estate. Dessau, Germany.
Self-Portrait as Bauhaus Ghost. Prellerhaus, Bauhaus Dessau, Germany.
A gate covered in Clematis Vitalba (Old Man's Beard), common in Dessau. Dessau, Germany.
Self-Portrait as Bauhaus Ghost, Bauhaus Dessau, Germany.
Staircase. Prellerhaus, Bauhaus Dessau, Dessau, Germany.
Self-Portrait as Bauhaus Ghost. Bauhaus Dessau, Germany.
Wild Grapes. Dessau, Germany.
Model of the Bauhaus. Bauhaus Dessau, Dessau, Germany.
Advertising Boards. Dessau, Germany.
The Building House
2025-OngoingIn 1933, the Bauhaus, famed for its radical, modernist approach to art and design, was hounded out of Dessau by the newly established National Socialist Government. The school was labelled "degenerate' by the Nazis and attacked for its left-leaning faculty and students. After refusing to comply with the demands of the Nazi Party, the Bauhaus chose to close its doors for good. Whilst those who could afford it emigrated, many went into hiding or were forced into collaboration to survive in the years following Germany's political crisis. Tragically, several Bauhausler who could not escape and chose resistance were murdered by the Nazis.
Now, in 2026, in a troubling pseudo-reenactment, the Bauhaus again finds itself caught in a reanimated "culture war" about German identity and intensifying polarisation across the country. As the school seeks to celebrate its 100th anniversary in Dessau, members of the far-right AFD party have begun blaming the Bauhaus for the region's decline. AFD member Hans-Thomas Tillschneider has called for a rejection of the Bauhaus, claiming it to be infused with communist ideology. In response to the centennial, the AFD have called for a "re-examination" of the Bauhaus legacy to be debated in the regional parliament.
With the AFD’s popularity exploding across eastern Germany and the possibility of the extreme far-right again being responsible for cultural policy in Germany, this project seeks to stand in solidarity with the Bauhaus and its ideas. Engaging with Bauhaus aesthetics, history and ideas, the photographs document the growing political polarisation in Germany, whilst costumed self-portraits look to embody the echoes of those who once called the Bauhaus home.
_
This is an ongoing work being made in collaboration with researchers at Bauhaus Dessau and has been exhibited as a work in progress as part of the Bauhaus Dessau Centenary Festival Programme.