After his training and PhD he worked as a photographer and critic. In 1925 he wrote Nach Expressionismus: Magischer Realismus.Probleme der neuesten europäischen Malerei (After Expressionism: Magical Realism. Problems of the newest European painting). He published his book Foto-Auge (Photo-Eye), which costed him to be arrested by the Nazis. During his years in prison he wrote Der Verkannte Künstler: Geschichte und Theorie des kulturellen Mißverstehens (The unrecognized artist: history and theory of cultural misunderstanding).