August Sander was a German photographer who is best known for his series of portraits capturing the people and social classes of Germany during the first half of the 20th century. His work is considered to be one of the most important contributions to the development of documentary photography.

Sander was born in Herdorf, Germany and spent much of his early life working in a mine, as his father was a mine carpenter, before discovering his passion for photography. He later moved to Cologne, where he opened his own photography studio in 1910.

Sander’s most famous work is his series of portraits titled “People of the 20th Century”, which he began in the early 1900s and continued to work on until his death. The series aimed to document the social structure of Germany during the early 20th century, and included photographs of people from all walks of life, from farmers and factory workers to artists and intellectuals.

Sander’s portraits were often shot in a straightforward, unadorned style, with his subjects typically photographed against plain backgrounds in natural light. He avoided new technologies by not using the newly invented Leica camera. Instead he remained dedicated to an old-fashioned large-format camera, glass negatives and long exposure times. This allowed him to capture smaller details of individual faces. His work was deeply influenced by the ideas of the German sociologist Max Weber, who believed that the study of social structure should be based on empirical observation.

Despite its importance, Sander’s work was often criticized by the Nazi regime, which saw his depictions of the working class and marginalized groups as a threat to their ideology. Many of his negatives were destroyed during World War II, and he was forced to abandon his work on “People of the 20th Century”.

Today, Sander’s work is recognized as a cornerstone of documentary photography, and his portraits continue to inspire generations of photographers around the world.

His work

image analysis

“Der Boxer Heinz Heese” is a portrait created in 1929. The image depicts Heinz Heese, a professional boxer, in a typical boxing stance. He is wearing boxing gloves and shorts, and his muscular build is emphasized by the strong light and shadow contrasts used in the photo.

Sander was known for his portraits of people from different social classes and professions, and “Der Boxer Heinz Heese” is part of his larger series “People of the 20th Century”, which aimed to document the diverse German society of the time.

The photograph has been described as a realistic and unidealized portrayal of a working-class boxer, reflecting Sander’s interest in capturing the essence of his subjects without any embellishments. It is considered a significant work of German modernist portraiture and a representation of the cultural and political context of the time.