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August Sander
"The essence of all photography is documentary in nature," said August Sander in one of the six radio talks which he gave on Westdeutscher Rundfunk in 1931, thus giving expression to his personal view of his work.
August Sander, who is among the most important photographers in the history of the medium, is regarded as the forerunner, so to speak, of what was then a new trend in photography, today seen in the context of "Neue Sachlichkeit". Born in Herdorf in the Siegerland in 1876, he achieved fame through his work "People of the 20th Century", which he conceived in the mid 1920s. It consists of folders of several hundred portraits of people from different social classes and occupations in accordance with a concept he worked out over many years. Excerpts from the work were first shown at an exhibition held by the Kölnischer Kunstverein in 1927, and in his first book, published in 1929 under the title "Antlitz der Zeit" ("Face of Our Time"). With this volume of 60 portraits, introduced by Alfred Döblin, Sander succeeded in presenting a multifaceted social portrait of his age, one that aimed at reflecting on the "individual" vis-à-vis the "typical" in each social and occupational group, as well as enquiring into the mutual influence of individual and community. Sander's method is summed up in the terms "comparative photography" and "direct observation", which also point up his concern for unprejudiced true-to-life depiction. In addition it is clear that Sander saw juxtaposition as a means of bringing out the typical physiognomies and body-languages of the different genders, generations and occupational groups, as well as individual phenomena. It was in this sense that he wrote to an artist friend in 1951: "Photography is like a mosaic, which only achieves a synthesis when you can display it all at once as I did in my work Antlitz der Zeit."
"Antlitz der Zeit" met with a huge response, as is evidenced in numerous reviews by, among others, Kurt Tucholsky, Thomas Mann and Walter Benjamin, who in his "Kleine Geschichte der Photographie" ("Short History of Photography") in 1931 pointed especially to its educational effect against the background of the threat of Nazi rule. In 1936, however, the printing plates for "Antlitz der Zeit" were destroyed by the Nazis and further distribution of the book was stopped. This was a second heavy blow for Sander; two years earlier, his eldest son Erich had been arrested on political grounds and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, from which he never emerged, dying of medical neglect shortly before his release was due. Even so, Sander himself was not banned from working (as has often been supposed), and continued to operate from the studio in the Lindenthal district of Cologne which he had set up in 1911.
In parallel with his extensive portrait work, August Sander had devoted himself since his youth to other motifs, for example landscape and architecture, designing numerous folders of pictures for these areas of his work too. In addition, he was in constant contact with numerous artists, in particular the Cologne Progressives around Heinrich Hoerle and Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, for whom he undertook a great deal of photographic work, as well as with clients from industry and the craft trades.
In his 70 or so years as a photographer, August Sander explored the essence and evolution of photography in almost every respect technique, choice and composition of a motif, and the use and context of the photograph itself. His work thus bears witness to a profound, practical and theoretical confrontation with his medium, which led him to a clearly defined way of dealing with it. He described this as "exact photography", whose origins lay in the early days of the medium, and which sought to give an absolutely true-to-life picture of his age. Even more was to result, namely a unique photographic work of far-reaching importance in terms both of cultural history and of the further development of the medium.
August Sander died in Cologne in 1964. The world's largest collection of his works, including more than 4,500 original prints and some 11,000 original negatives, is today housed at the Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung, Cologne, and made accessible to the public through continual publications and exhibitions. Thus the "People of the 20th Century" exhibition based on Sander's project of the same name can be seen this year at two further venues: the Städelmuseum Frankfurt from 16 March to 2 May and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York vom 26 May to 19 September 2004.
Dr. Susanne Lange / Gabriele Conrath-Scholl
Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur
(August Sander: "People of the 20th Century", 7 vols, trilingual ed. by Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne, revised by Susanne Lange, Gabriele Conrath-Scholl and Gerd Sander. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, Paris: Éditions de La Martinière, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.. 2002.)
Biography
1876
August Sander is born on 17 November in Herdorf, the son of August Sander sen. (1846–1906), a mining carpenter who was later to retire as an invalid, and Justine Sander, née Jung (1845–1919). August Sander jun. grows up with seven brothers and sisters.
1890–1896
Works on the spoil tip at a Herdorf iron ore mine. Here he becomes acquainted with a professional photographer from Siegen who arouses his interest in photography. With the financial support of his uncle, he buys his first photographic equipment.
1897–1909
Military service and apprenticeship in Trier with the photographer Georg Jung. From here, he travels as part of his training to Berlin, Magdeburg, Halle, Dresden, Leipzig and elsewhere, visiting and working at studios en route. Presumably as an observer, he attends the Royal Academy of Art or the Dresden Academy of Applied Arts. Then comes employment at the Photographische Kunstanstalt Greif, a studio in Linz on the Danube (Austria) which Sander takes over in 1902. At what he calls his Studio for Pictorial Photography, he accepts "photographic assignments of every kind". Even at that time, his work covers a broad range of subjects, encompassing portrait, architectural, landscape, industrial and still life photography. The technical standard of his photographs is state-of-the-art. Sanders work is often exhibited and wins many awards. During the Linz years, he also marries Anna Seitenmacher (1902) and celebrates the birth of his sons Erich (1903) and Gunther (1907).
1910–1920
Moves to Cologne. Birth of twins Sigrid and Helmut (1911), only daughter Sigrid survives. Sander establishes a studio at Dürener Straße 201 in the Lindenthal district of Cologne and embarks on the photographic work in the Westerwald that yields important material for his later opus People of the 20th Century. At the outbreak of the First World War, Sander is called up for military service; he does not return until the war ends in 1918. Anna Sander runs the business in his absence.
1920 onwards
Intensive exchange with the Gruppe progressiver Künstler [group of progressive artists], especially with the painters Franz Wilhelm Seiwert and Heinrich Hoerle. The idea and concept for his great portraiture work People of the 20th Century start to take shape. In 1927, he stages his first presentation of the project at the Cologne Kunstverein. In the same year, Sander undertakes a trip to Sardinia with the writer Ludwig Mathar. In 1929, a volume of photographs entitled Antlitz der Zeit [Face of Our Time] is published as a preview of the final work. Sander is invited by the broadcaster Westdeutsche Rundfunk to give a series of six radio talks on "the essence and development of photography" (1931). Sander's son Erich, a humanities student and member of the SAP [Socialist Workers' Party], is denounced and sentenced to ten years imprisonment (1934). Antlitz der Zeit is banned by the Nazis and the printing plates are destroyed. The publishers L. Schwann in Düsseldorf and L. Holzwarth in Bad Rothenfelde publish six volumes containing photographs by August Sander, each one devoted to a different region of Germany (1933–1935). Sander's photos address various pictorial themes, the main emphasis being on landscapes and architecture. Sander also does botanical studies and produces detail shots, e.g. of hands, and receives numerous commissions for industrial and promotional photographs. As the war progresses, Anna and August Sander decide they have to move out of Cologne. Gradually, from 1942 onwards, they transfer their home to the Westerwald village of Kuchhausen.
1944–1946
Sander's son Erich dies in Siegburg prison (1944), the victim of an untreated ruptured appendix. The studio in Cologne is destroyed by bombing. Sander manages to save a major part of his archive and move it to his new home in the Westerwald. Under difficult conditions, he sets up a new studio and resumes his work as a photographer. Roughly 25,000 to 30,000 negatives still stored in the cellar of the Cologne apartment are destroyed by a fire (January 1946). Numerous other photographic projects are planned and launched. Sander's son Gunther arranges for a radio interview to be broadcast by Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk to mark August Sander's 70th birthday. As a result of it, contacts in Cologne are revived.
1951–1962
Exhibition of Sander's work at the second photokina (1951) at the instigation of Professor L. Fritz Gruber and a visit by Edward Steichen, director of the photography department of New York's Museum of Modern Art (1952). Sale of the portfolio Köln, wie es war [Cologne as it was] to the City of Cologne (1953). Participation in the traveling exhibition The Family of Man (1955) curated by Steichen. Awarded the freedom of his home town Herdorf (1958). Special issue of the Swiss monthly periodical DU (1959). Order of Merit 1st Class and Cultural Award of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie [German Photographic Society] (1960/61). Publication of the book Deutschenspiegel [Mirror of the Germans] with an introduction by Heinrich Lützeler (1962).
1957
Death of Sander's wife Anna in Kuchhausen.
1964
20 April, August Sander dies in Cologne after a stroke.
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