Following World War I, László Moholy-Nagy (Bácsborsód, Hungary, 1895 – Chicago, 1946) pursued an artistic career in Berlin alongside Kurt Schwitters, Raoul Hausmann, and Hannah Höch. In 1922 he met Walter Gropius and Theo van Doesburg. In 1923, he became professor at the Bauhaus in Weimar and began to take an interest in typography. In 1924, along with Gropius, he conceived the Bauhausbücher collection; the word “photogram” appeared for the first time as a reference to his “photographs without a camera” in one of the collection’s volumes.

Moholy-Nagy experimented with new forms and techniques utilizing aluminum and cellulose to create abstract works. In 1934 he moved to Amsterdam and worked for an affiliate of a large printing press which allowed him to experiment with color photography. He also produced and exhibited several set designs. In 1935, fleeing from the advance of the Nazis, he relocated to London where he worked as a graphic designer, poster designer, and window dresser. At this time he created three-dimensional “spatial modulators” with Plexiglas. In 1936 he planned the special effects for the film Things to Come, based on the work by H. G. Wells. The following year he was named Director of the New Bauhaus in Chicago.