14. August Sander

Looking at the works of Sander & Avedon

Even though we looked very briefly at a collection of street photographs, there were a selection of photographers that we looked at in depth who we could have used for Street Portraits but they would also be useful in other aspects of Documentary Portraiture. The photographers which we focused on in class included August Sander and Richard Avedon, both very recognised portraiture photographers.

August Sander.

Sander is to be considered one of the greatest photographers of history, and was revolutionary in his work towards Documentary Photography. 

A German photographer, who spent seven years as a miner and a period of national service before he became involved in the arts. He studied painting in Dresden in 1901 which opened the opportunity to approach photography artistically. He began working for photographic firms in Berlin, Magdeburg, Halle and Dresden from 1898 which developed his interest in the medium. He worked and ran several photographic studios including Greif Studio and Sander & Stukenberg, before he founded his own studio in Lindenthal in 1910. 

By then Sander had began his major photography project, 'Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts', with he worked on until the 1950's. He began this main project by photographing Westerwad farmers, which he saw as the archetypal contemporary man. 

'Sander developed a philosophy that placed man a cyclic model of society.'

Three Young Farmers in Sunday Dress, 1914

Sander's portraits were always set in a simple environment, and normally the environment of the subject, whether the photograph was full- or half length. Whatever the subject, he would hive a controlled, intentional hint at the origin or profession of the sitter being photographed, either through background, clothes or even a gesture. Here we have Sander's photograph 'Three Young Farmers in Sunday Dress, 1914' and although they are dressed in their best ware, you can tell their origins by the background, an open landscape immediately suggests their farmer origins. 

'Sander tried in all his work to incorporate this relationship of sitter to setting up to the las detail, with great confidence but at the same time with caution.'

Sander acquired an international reputation as one of Germany's most important post-war photographers due to his strict documentation of his view on man. His selection of people was mainly influenced by personal encounters and was hardly 'representative in a demographic sense', his portraits still document an accurate reflection of the time.

'His individual approach determined the nature of his work and guaranteed him an outstanding position in international documentary photography.'

-  From The Museum of Modern Art website. Click Here.

Circus People, 1930

All of August Sander's photographs are interesting, or have an interesting aspect about them. Above is Sander's photograph 'Circus People, 1930', a very interesting portrait photograph which I, personally had never seen before. What I love about this portrait shot is the various facial expressions throughout the images, it almost seems like Sander has grabbed a couple of people from what they're doing to sit for a few seconds while he photographed them. There aren't any posing, or dressing up, Sander took the photograph of them, as they were. 

Sander's work is a perfect representation of various ethnic groups in Germany during the mid-twentieth century. I'm looking at the work of Sander for my 24-7 project because one of our photographs must be photographed in the style of Sander, to me this involves photographing the subject in their own environment. Also, after looking at Sander's photographs I noticed how he used quite simple backgrounds, this might be something to note when taking my Sander style photograph.