ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the contribution of German poet and visual artist Anneliese Hager to both Cobra and to postwar European Surrealism more broadly. Hager’s ties to the Nordic countries stem primarily from her involvement in the Cobra exhibition and related Surrealist journals. Hager is one of a number of modern artists who began an experimental practice after National Socialist cultural policy began to harden against all forms of modern art. Hager’s knowledge of photography came from the natural sciences. Hager began her experimentations with straight photography, using multiple exposures, but she ultimately came to favor photograms, or camera-less photographs. Hager’s interest in camera-less photography is thus closely linked to the play of light in nature, to childhood, and the unconscious.
