Werner Graeff (1901–1978) was a German artist, photographer, and inventor who studied at the Bauhaus in Weimar starting in 1921. He was a member of the De Stijl movement and worked extensively with the Werkbund. In 1929, he published 'Es kommt der neue Fotograf!', a landmark handbook on modern photography commissioned for the Werkbund exhibition 'Film und Foto' in Stuttgart. Graeff became a prominent photography educator, teaching at the Reimann School in Berlin (1930–1932) and later founding his own school in Berlin before emigrating to Spain in 1934 due to the rise of National Socialism. He eventually settled in Switzerland, where he opened the 'Fotoschule Locarno' in 1940 with Anne de Montet. Beyond photography education, Graeff was an inventor who developed and patented a miniature camera (the 'Graeff' camera) between 1942 and 1954. He also worked as a painter and sculptor.[1,2,3,4,5]
