August Sander
August Sander (17 November 1876 – 20 April 1964) was a German portrait and documentary photographer. His work includes landscape, nature, architecture, and street photography, but he is most well known for his portraits.
His most recognised series is titled People of the 20th century, and aims to show a cross-section of society during the Weimar Republic.
The picture shown above belongs to ‘The Skilled Tradesman’, which is one of the seven chapters in his ‘People of the 20th Century’ project. The title and focus of this image represent a typical example of Sander’s work documenting individuals from different jobs and social backgrounds. In terms of style, the way the portrait is centered, the plain background, and the traditional framing show Sander’s belief in photography as a way to reveal the truth; it captures reality as it is, without any fancy techniques, sticking to the established norms of portrait photography. Sander mentioned in his important lecture ‘Photography as a Universal Language’ that photography is the best medium to show the ‘physical path to demonstrable truth and understand physiognomy’.
Sander later expanded his project, People of the 20th Century, to feature a group called ‘The Woman’ (shown above). One of the subjects is ‘Sekretärin beim Westdeutschen Rundfunk in Köln’ (Secretary at West German Radio in Cologne), which he captured while working for the German public broadcasting organization ‘Westdeutscher Rundfunk’. This portrait can be compared to Otto Dix’s ‘Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden’, created five years earlier. Both artworks showcase a new wave of women in the workforce during that era—balancing both androgynous and feminine traits, and breaking free from traditional domestic roles. These portraits play a significant role in the emergence of the New Objectivity movement in German art, which was a response to the prevailing expressionist style, aiming for a more realistic and straightforward representation of the human form.
Typologies
A photographic typology is a study of “types”, typically a photographic series that prioritizes “collecting” rather than stand-alone images. By extracting visual elements and presenting them in a similarly consistent series, we can create a visual analysis of objects and the larger environment and its inhabitants – often without featuring the occupants themselves.
Examples of Typologies:
