| Dates: | 1876, 17 November - 1964, 20 April | | Born: | Germany, Siegerland, Herdorf nr. Siegen | | Active: | Germany | | Gender: | Male |
German photographer who spent 40 years creating ‘Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts‘ - a portrait study of all classes of German society.Preparing biographies
Biography provided by Focal Press
Sander’s portraits of the German people of the 1920s and 1930s made with uncompromising clarity and directness deeply influenced a century of portraiture and documentary work. In 1910, he began work on Menschen des 20 Jahrhunderts (Man of the 20th Century) which, never fully realized, was intended as a comprehensive typological portrait of German society. Eschewing the use of a traditional painted backdrop, he posed his subjects outdoors or in their own environments; his subjects represented every social strata and occupation, from formally posed industrialists to cooks in their kitchens. By organizing his full figure portraits of people into typologies, he hoped to create a total portrait of German society. The first volume of this project, Antlitz der Zeit (Face of Our Time), was published in 1929, but Sander’s work was banned and all existing books were seized and destroyed by the Nazis. Sander’s studio was bombed during the war. After the war he continued to photograph mostly landscape and architectural studies.
(Author: Garie Waltzer - Photographer and consultant)
Michael Peres (Editor-in-Chief), 2007, Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, 4th edition, (Focal Press) [ISBN-10: 0240807405, ISBN-13: 978-0240807409]
(Used with permission)
Readings on, or by, individual photographers
Heiting, Manfred (ed.), 1999, August Sander 1876–1964, (New York: Taschen) [LL_REF:896]
Kölnisches Stadtmuseum (ed.), 1995, August Sander: Köln wie es war, (Cologne) [LL_REF:2284]
Sander, August, 1973, Men Without Masks: Faces of Germany, 1910–1938, (Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society) [LL_REF:898]
Sander, August, 1980, August Sander: Photographs of an Epoch. 1904–1959, (Millerton, NY: Aperture) [Preface by Beaumont Newhall; historical commentary by Robert Kramer] [LL_REF:895]
Sander, August, 1986, August Sander: Citizens of the Twentieth Century: Portrait Photographs 1892–1952, (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press) [Edited by Gunther Sander.] [LL_REF:1553]
Sander, August, 2003, Antlitz der Zeit, (Munich: Schirmer/Mosel) [LL_REF:897]
If you feel this list is missing a significant book or article please let me know - Alan - alan@luminous-lint.com
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Family history
If you are related to this photographer and interested in tracking down your extended family we can place a note here for you to help. It is free and you would be amazed who gets in touch.
alan@luminous-lint.com |
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Exhibitions on this website |
 | August Sander: Architecture |
|  | August Sander: Books |
|  | August Sander: Landscapes |
|  | August Sander: People of the 20th Century |
|  | August Sander: Persecution |
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All photographs by this photographer
The following books are useful starting points to obtain brief biographies but they are not substitutes for the monographs on individual photographers. |
• Beaton, Cecil & Buckland, Gail 1975 The Magic Eye: The Genius of Photography from 1839 to the Present Day (Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown & Company) p.140 [Useful short biographies with personal asides and one or more example images.]
• Capa, Cornell (ed.) 1984 The International Center of Photography: Encyclopedia of Photography (New York, Crown Publishers, Inc. - A Pound Press Book) p.443-444
• Coke, Van Deren with Diana C. Du Pont 1986 Photography: A Facet of Modernism (New York: Hudson Hills Press, The San Francisco Museum of Art) p.183
• International Center of Photography 1999 Reflections in a Glass Eye: Works from the International Center of Photography Collection (New York: A Bulfinch Press Book) p.227 [Includes a well written short biography on August Sander with example plate(s) earlier in book.]
• Weaver, Mike (ed.) 1989 The Art of Photography 1839-1989 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press) p.465 [This exhibition catalogue is for the travelling exhibition that went to Houston, Canberra and London in 1989.]
• Witkin, Lee D. and Barbara London 1979 The Photograph Collector’s Guide (London: Secker and Warburg) p.228-229 [Long out of print but an essential reference work - the good news is that a new edition is in preparation.]
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If there is an analysis of a single photograph or a useful self portrait I will highlight it here. |
Photographic collections are a useful means of examining large numbers of photographs by a single photographer on-line.
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