| 1921 | Asia • Japan | Fukuhara Shinzo, Kakefuda Isao and Otaguro Motoo put on the Art Photography Exhibition at the Shimeido Gallery and attack traditional art photography. (July 1921) |
| 1921 | North America • USA | Alfred Stieglitz - An Exhibition of Photography by Alfred Steiglitz - 145 prints, over 128 of which have never been publicly shown, dating from 1886-1921 opens at the Anderson Galleries (Park Avenue and Fifty-ninth street, New York). It is an early retrospective of his work. (2 July 1921) |
| 1923 | Europe • Germany | László Moholy-Nagy starts teaching a photography course at the Bauhaus which is a innovative center for graphic and product design. |
| 1924 | Europe • Germany | The expression Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) is used to describe neo-realist painters by Gustav Hartlaub (Director of the Mannhreim Kunsthalle). The term becomes applied to a group of photographers including Albert Renger-Patzsch (1897-1966), August Sander (1876-1964) Helmar Lerski (1871-1956) and Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1952). Each of them publishes seminal photographic books in the 1920s and Germany becomes one of the leading countries for the integration of photographs into graphic design. |
| 1925 | Europe • Germany
| László Moholy-Nagy publishes Malerei Fotografie Film - Bauhausbücher 8 (Munich: Albert Langen, 1925). This book embraces all the new ways in which photographs can be used and combined with typography for advertising and commercial applications. |
| 1925 | Europe • Germany | Leica uses the 35mm still format that became the most widely used film standard |
| 1927 | Europe
| Germaine Krull publishes Métal with an introduction by Florent Fels" (Paris: Librairie des Arts Décoratifs, 1928) |
| 1927 | Europe • UK | Violet K. Blaiklock (?-1961) and Agnes Beatrice Warburg, UK, (1872-1953) co-found the Colour Group of The Royal Photographic Society (UK). Prior to this they had experimented with many different forms of color photography, inventing the Warburytype. |
| 1927 | North America • Canada | The first exhibition of Pictorial photography is held in Vancouver (B.C.). |
| 1928 | Europe • Germany
| Karl Blossfeldt publishes Urformen der Kunst.
Title | Lightbox | Checklist |
| 1928 | Europe • Germany
| Albert Renger-Patzsch publishes Die Welt ist Schön (Munich: Kurt Wolff, 1928) |
| 1928 | North America • USA | The execution of Ruth Synder by electrocution at Sing Sing Prison is secretly photographed by Tom Howard and is published in an extra edition of the Daily News: New York‘s Picture Newspaper. (12 January 1928) |
| 1929 | Europe • Germany
| August Sander publishes Antlitz der Zeit with an introduction by Alfred Döblin (Munich: Transmare and Kurt Wolff, 1929). |
| 1929 | North America • USA
| Edward Steichen publishes Steichen The Photographer with text by Carl Sandburg (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1929). |
| 1929 | North America • USA | The St. Valentine's Day Massacre takes place in Chicago and the bloody remains are photographed by numerous news photographers. (14 February 1929) |
| 1929 | Europe • France | Man Ray and Lee Miller rediscover the Sabattier effect and call it solarization. They start to use it for artistic photographs. |
| 1930 | North America • USA | Ansel Adams publishes Taos Pueblo. |
| 1930 | Europe • France
| Eugčne Atget publishes Atget Photographe de Paris (New York: E. Weyhe, 1930). |
| 1930 | Europe • France
| Claude Cahun publishes Aveux non Avenus (Paris: Éditions du Carrefour, 1930). |
| 1930 | Europe • Czechoslovakia
| Frantisek Drtikol publishes Zena ve Svetle [Women in Light] (Prague: E. Beaufort, 1930). |
