About August Sander

August Sander was a German portrait and documentary photographer. Sander has been described as ‘the most important German portrait photographer of the early twentieth century’. He was born in the 17th of November, 1876 in Herdorf, Germany. He passed away on the 20th of April, 1964 in Cologne, Germany.

His main journey began in the mid 1920s, when he began his decades-long project ‘People of the Twentieth Century‘. Though Sander never completed this exceptionally ambitious project, it includes over 600 photographs divided into seven volumes and nearly 50 portfolios. This project became extremely popular and made him an iconic portrait photographer.

Sander wanted his black and white portraits to ‘honestly tell the truth about our age and people’, and despite him clearly achieving this, his photos are still very subjective and leave a lot to interpretation. Sander’s work continues to be a source of inspiration for generations of photographers, including Walker Evans, Diane Arbus, Bernd and Hilla Becher, and Rineke Dijkstra. Sander also changed the way many of us think about portraiture, informed the way we see gender and class, and shaped discussions around the archive as art and the idea of the documentary

“If we can create portraits of subjects that are true, we thereby in effect create a mirror of the times”

– August Sander

His Work

These are some portraits from his series ‘People of the Twentieth Century‘, presenting a range of different people from his time. His portraits consist of some half body and full body shots, creating an interesting project.

Image Analysis

This portrait is one of the most famous from  his series ‘People of the 20th Century‘, and shows a bricklayer casually posing in front of stacks of bricks. The photo is a face on shot, capturing a full- body picture of the man, allowing us to view his entire outfit, further indicating his job type. The composition of the photo causes the man to be framed by the two stacks of bricks, causing him to be the area of focus and making this a more effective portrait. The photo is in black and white, allowing the photo to showcase a wide tonal range, highlighting the different textures throughout the piece. Moreover, the photo includes side lighting, coming from the right side of him, and creating a split lighting effect on his face, without over or underexposing either side. The man appears to be standing in a very casual way, propping his elbow on one of the brick piles. This creates a informal mood throughout the photo, also being quite neutral due to his lack of expression. The positioning of his body portrays confidence, suggesting how this has been his occupation for a long time and he is skilled at it. His bright clothing next to the dimly lit bricks creates contrast, making the man stand out even more. The bricks create an interesting pattern, a sense of repetition- perhaps portraying the long years the man has given to this job. This photograph is clearly staged, however this could indicate how Sander had a conversation with this man before making this portrait of him, the environment and pose pf the man being carefully chosen. This photo was a member of Sander’s series ‘People of the Twentieth Century‘, and this photo shows us an aspect of the working class at the time, the portrait presenting this man as confident and skilled, most likely implying how Sander himself saw this person.