Walter Ballhause Archive is the private archive of Walter Ballhause's descendants Martina Ballhause, widow of the late son Rolf Ballhause, and granddaughters Claudia and Cornelia, who keep Walter Ballhause's work accessible in his interest as a politically committed worker photographer, artist and humanist.
Through his intensive study of Knauf's book ["Empörung und Gestaltung" (Outrage and Design)], the young Walter Ballhause came to the realisation that the social-revolutionary power of a photograph is closely tied to questions of adequate aesthetic design. He therefore did not rely solely on a convincing content, as the relevant articles in "Der Arbeiter-Fotograf" (The Workers' Photographer) demanded at the same time, but understood his photography as an aesthetic artefact that had to be intentionally designed in order to achieve social effectiveness.
(Naumann-Zimmer, Dr Christoph: „Ich war Arbeiterfotograf, ohne es zu wissen.“ Walter Ballhause und sein Album Soziale Fotos, Paderborn 2024)
