August Sander
1925
Young Farmers
[People of the 20th Century: Portraits of German Citizens 1910-1940]

Gelatin silver print
Kathleen Ewing Gallery
Courtesy of the Kathleen Ewing Gallery/Washington DC, © Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur - August Sander Archiv, Cologne; ARS, New York, 2007
 
This photograph was printed by Gerd Sander between 1990 -1997.
 
For an analysis of this photograph: Juliet Hacking (ed.), 2012, Photography: The Whole Story, (Prestel), pp. 300-301
 
For a more detailed analysis and the historical context:
 
These Farmers Weren't Farmers
The Art Assignment
Published on Feb 28, 2019
This photograph of young farmers on their way to a dance was taken in Germany in 1914 by August Sander. Except they weren't farmers. And the dance they were on their way to was World War I.
(Accessed: 4 March 2019)

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Richard Powers, 2001, Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, (Harper Perennial) provides a fictional account based upon this photograph. The Amazon description is:

In the spring of 1914, renowned photographer August Sander took a photograph of three young men on their way to a country dance. This haunting image, capturing the last moments of innocence on the brink of World War I, provides the central focus of Powers's brilliant and compelling novel. As the fate of the three farmers is chronicled, two contemporary stories unfold. The young narrator becomes obsessed with the photo, while Peter Mays, a computer writer in Boston, discovers he has a personal link with it. The three stories connect in a surprising way and provide the reader with a mystery that spans a century of brutality and progress.

 
LL/22895