August Zander. August Sander is not a children's photographer
“I don’t set myself the task of creating a perfect portrait. My task is to show the personality in natural conditions, with all its advantages and disadvantages.”
August Sander was born on November 17, 1876 in the town of Herdorf, near Cologne (Germany), in the family of a carpenter and a peasant woman. Zander's father worked at an iron ore mine, where August also became an apprentice miner at the age of thirteen. However, the young man’s interests were by no means limited to everyday routine. In 1882, his uncle gave him a 13x18 cm camera, and this gift changed the young man’s whole life. Father and mother, despite their simple origins, supported their son’s hobby in every possible way and even helped him set up a “dark room” for photography. His hobby grew into a profession - devoting all his evenings and nights to his favorite business, the young man soon succeeded in it so much that he became an assistant photographer at the mine. In 1896, Zander was called up for military service, but completed it without interrupting his profession - as an apprentice photographer. After the army, the young man devoted himself completely to his favorite work and began to engage in industrial and architectural photography. In 1901 - 1902, August Sander studied painting in Dresden, thanks to which he acquired skills that would later be so useful to him in portrait photography.
Traveling through German and Austrian lands, in 1901 the young photographer ended up in the town of Linz. Then he first started working at the local photography studio Photographic Studio Graf, and a year later, after finishing his studies in Dresden, he and his business partner bought the studio. The studio became known as Studio Sander and Stuckenberg, and two years later changed its name again to August Sander Studio for Pictorial Arts of Photography and Painting - August Sander acquired the joint venture as his own and began working independently. The photographer's business was going well. He got married, his studio flourished, and in 1904 his work received his first, and very prestigious, award - the Gold Medal of the Paris Photographic Exhibition. At the same time, August Sander began experiments with color photography, which were also very successful - the Leipzig Museum immediately acquired a number of works into its collection. In 1906, the first exhibition took place in the Landhaus exhibition hall in Linz. personal exhibition August Sander.
At the end of 1909, the photographer sold his studio in Linz and moved first to Trier and then to the suburbs of Cologne, where he created his new studio. The photographer continued to engage in architectural and industrial photography, and also took portraits of both workers and peasants, as well as the “pure”, bourgeois public. It was at this time that he first thought about creating an extensive series of works that would reflect contemporary German society. New project, which was called “People of the 20th Century,” became August Sander’s life’s work. Filming of the series continued for more than thirty years, without interruption during the First world war(which Sander went through as a war photographer), nor on the photographer’s only trip outside Germany - to Sardinia (1927), where he photographed landscapes and, of course, local residents. The result of this astonishing work was a kind of social encyclopedia, a true cross-section of German society in the first half of the twentieth century.
The first 60 photographs from the series “People of the 20th Century” were presented to the public in 1927 at an exhibition that took place in Cologne. These same works were included in the photo album “Faces of Our Time,” which was published in 1929 with a foreword by the famous novelist Alfred Deblin, and was subsequently continued with publications with new works in the series. However portrait photography, no matter how much she fascinated the photographer, it was by no means his only occupation. Zander, who had already become a recognized master, devoted a lot of time to training young photographers and popularizing photography as an art. Already in 1919, not only apprentices, but also trainees appeared in his photo studio. And in 1931, Zander appeared on the radio with a series of lectures under common name“The Nature and Development of Photography”, which gained enormous popularity.
But the political situation in Germany was changing rapidly. National Socialism was gaining momentum, lectures on art on the radio gave way to speeches by Adolf Hitler. After the Nazis came to power, the photo album “Faces of Our Time” was banned, the remains were confiscated, and all negatives were destroyed. The exact reason for the Nazis' hatred of Sander's work is still unknown. It is assumed that photographs of the “lower classes” of German society undermined the ideological doctrine of the Nazis about the purity of the German race. It is also likely that August Sander was suspected of distributing anti-fascist literature and shared the views of his son. Erich Sander participated in the anti-Nazi movement and was a member of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany. In 1934 he was arrested and imprisoned.
During the Second World War, August Sander left Cologne and settled for some time in the state of Reiland, which had long admired him for its picturesque nature. But Zander’s landscapes and portraits were in little demand at that time. The photographer spent much more time on other orders - printing pre-war photographs of soldiers killed in the war for their relatives and friends. Zander himself was also plagued by misfortune. In 1944, his son Erich died in prison. In the same year, the Cologne atelier, which had not ceased its activities, was destroyed by bombing. Although Zander managed to save thousands of negatives, two years later, in 1946, many of them were stolen by looters. However, despite all the losses, the photographer continued to work on the “People of the 20th Century” series, as well as several other projects and photo albums.
After the war, August Sander regained his well-deserved recognition. In 1951, his work was presented at the first Photokina exhibition. In the same year, Cologne bought documentary photographs of pre-war city landscapes from Sander. Several of the photographer's works were selected by Edward Steichen for the exhibition "The Human Race", which was held in 1955 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Sander received many awards, including Germany's highest award, the Cross of Merit (1960).
At the end of 1963, August Sander suffered a stroke. A few months later the photographer passed away. After the death of August Sander, his work was continued by his son Gunther, and subsequently by his grandson Gerhard.
Creation
August Sander's works from the series “People of the 20th Century” have been exhibited and republished many times. The series represents a cross-section of German society during the Weimar Republic and consists of seven parts: “Farmer”, “Merchant”, “Woman”, “Classes and Professions”, “Artists”, “City”, “The Last People”. The heroes of the photographs - young and old, men, women and children, students, workers and officials, are depicted in their usual surroundings or against a neutral background, but in such a way that we practically do not need additional explanations regarding the personality of the character. August Sander said: “Our idea of people is formed by light and air, their hereditary traits and their actions. Relying on appearance of a person, we can judge the work he does or doesn't do, we can tell from his face whether he is happy or anxious... I do not set myself the task of creating a perfect portrait. My task is to show the personality in natural conditions, with all its advantages and disadvantages.”
August Sander’s “classification” of people is based on their professions and types, which are a little naive to the modern eye, in which he tried to find archetypes. For example, the first section of the series, “Farmer,” is about the archetypes of “earthly people”: philosopher, fighter, sage. In the “Merchant” section, August Sander, following his own logic of social hierarchy, included not only trade workers (sellers, small shopkeepers) and artisans, but also people who are today called “white collar workers”: engineers, industrialists and even inventors. The “Classes and Professions” section includes people of all other professions, occupations and classes, and therefore is the most significant part of the “People of the 20th Century” series. Students and schoolchildren, doctors and officials, judges and soldiers, teachers and businessmen, aristocrats and politicians look at us from the photographs in this section. The later photographs of the section are dedicated to the National Socialists - these photographs, inspiring an involuntary feeling of anxiety, are reminiscent of the time when Cologne was a stronghold of the fascist movement. The heroines of the “Woman” section are wives and daughters, mothers and sisters. Several photographs represent family groups, indicating the place of women in the family, emphasizing their connection with men and children. However, the patriarchal approach is alien to the photographer. His photographs are dedicated to women in all their diversity - those who devote themselves to raising children and those who strive to make a career, secular fashionistas, artists, mothers of large families and housewives. In the “Artists” section we see many of the photographer’s friends, thanks to whom his studio in Cologne has become a real arena for social and aesthetic discussions. A modern critic would classify the photographs in the “City” section as belonging to the “street photography” genre, of course, adjusted for the conditions and technology of the first half of the twentieth century. The photographs in this section show the motley “composition” of the streets of Cologne during the Weimar Republic: street teenagers, the unemployed, travelers, foreign workers and beggars. The last section of the series, not without reason called “The Last People,” is dedicated to people who have been erased from society - the disabled, the mentally ill, the dying, the beggars and tramps. It was these portraits, which undermined the idea of the German race as heroic and pure, that aroused particular dissatisfaction with the Ministry of Culture of Nazi Germany. Today, the series consists of works whose negatives were preserved after the repressions that followed the destruction of the album “Faces of Our Time.”
In the works that make up the “People of the 20th Century” series, August Sander tried not to present his “idea” of a character, but to discover the deep essence of a person, his belonging to a certain social and cultural type. The photographer believed that the camera provides more opportunities for this than any other visual means. The artist’s kind of “cataloging” of people should, in his opinion, allow people to better understand themselves. August Sander may not have been able to accomplish this super-task, but he was quite successful in replenishing the fund of world photographic art with indisputable masterpieces.
Photographic works
August Sander is one of the classics of world photography, an outstanding master of photographic portraiture. The German photographer of the first third of the last century became widely known thanks to his grandiose work entitled “People of the 20th Century”. This is a huge collective portrait of an entire nation during the period of dizzying ups and heavy defeats of the German state.
The future master of photographic portraiture was born in 1876 in the town of Herdorf, near Cologne. His father was a carpenter and worked as a fastener at a local iron ore mine, and his mother was an ordinary peasant woman. Naturally, August began his path in life by getting a job at the same mine as a miner’s assistant at the age of thirteen.
Although the conditions of the small town left him no opportunity to choose the direction of his life's path, the boy's interests were not limited to the hard miner's routine. Back in 1882, August Sander's uncle gave his nephew a medium format camera. Some time passed, and the boy became seriously interested in photography. After several years of working in the mine, he decided to change his life and change his profession.
Oddly enough, Zander's parents supported the young man in his quest to master the art of photography and approved of his choice to become a photographer. They even helped set up a special “dark room” in the house for photography. The young man quickly succeeded in his endeavor and became an assistant photographer at the mine.
In 1896, August Sander was called up for military service, but even there he did not lose touch with photography, working as an apprentice photographer. After the army, the young man could devote himself entirely to his favorite business, but first he needed to receive an appropriate education. Therefore, in 1901 - 1902, Sander studied painting in Dresden to acquire the artistic skills that he might need in portrait photography. At the same time, he was actively involved in industrial and architectural photography.
After graduation, he bought one of the photographic studios in the Austrian city of Linz, which soon became known as August Sander Studio for Pictorial Arts of Photographyand Painting. August began to receive substantial income from his professional activity, the studio flourished. In 1904, Zander even received the prestigious Gold Medal of the Paris Photographic Exhibition for his work. And two years later, the first personal exhibition in his life took place in Linz.
But at the end of 1909 he decided to sell his studio in Linz and move back to Germany. Zander stopped in the suburbs of Cologne, where he opened a new photography studio, and began fulfilling commercial orders for architectural and industrial photography. In parallel with this, August Sander is engaged in portrait photography, photographing both representatives of the bourgeoisie and ordinary workers and peasants. It was during this period that the idea came to him to make an extensive series of portrait photographs, which would, in essence, become a reflection of German society. As a result, a grandiose project called “People of the 20th Century” became the work of his life for August Sander.
The photographer spent more than thirty years of his life creating this project - a break in filming occurred only during the First World War, when Zander was forced to go to the front as a war photographer. Also in 1927, he traveled for the only time outside of Germany for filming, to go to Sicily to photograph picturesque landscapes and local residents. For the rest of the period, his entire life was subordinated to the implementation of the project “People of the 20th Century,” which ultimately became a kind of social encyclopedia, reflecting a cross-section of German society during the Weimar Republic with its revolutionary hopes and disappointments.
The series of portrait works “People of the 20th Century” includes photographs of people of completely different social classes, different ages and professions. August Sander's photographs depict the wealthy and the have-not in German society during an era of economic and political contradictions. The first works from this series were presented to the general public in 1927 at an exhibition in Cologne. A little later they were included in the published photo album “Faces of Our Time”. By this time, August Sander was already engaged not only in his photographic activities, but also in teaching art, popularizing photography and training young, aspiring photographers.
The project “People of the 20th Century” has become the main creative achievement August Sander, a series of portrait works from this project were exhibited and republished many times. The project itself was divided into seven separate parts: Farmer, Trader, Woman, Classes and Professions, Artists, City and The Last People. With the help of his camera, Sander tried to carry out a kind of classification of German society - the photographs were divided by the professions of the characters in the hope of finding among the heroes those archetypal features that were inherent in these people (farmers, merchants, artisans, artists, etc.).
In the series “People of the 20th Century” you can even find photographs dedicated to supporters of National Socialism - a new trend in the political and social life of German society. As August Sander himself later noted: “Our idea of people is shaped by light and air, their hereditary traits and their actions. Based on a person's appearance, we can judge the work that he does or does not do, we can understand from his face whether he is happy or anxious... I do not set myself the task of creating a perfect portrait. My task is to show the personality in natural conditions, with all its advantages and disadvantages.”
Indeed, all portrait works were carried out in such a way that the main characters (students, workers, officials, representatives of the intelligentsia, women and children) were captured in photographs in their usual surroundings or against a neutral background, without any special frills in the form of, for example, unusual angle or beautiful scenery. Thanks to this, the viewer, looking at any photograph, can independently determine who is depicted in it.
Despite their apparent simplicity, Zander’s photographs invariably attract attention thanks to poses, facial expressions, facial expressions, costume and interior details, which sometimes speak more eloquently than any captions or comments. Portrait photography has always been done at or slightly below eye level. The essence of August Sander's work was to convey the essence of each individual person through belonging to a certain cultural and social type.
A kind of cataloging of people through photography, which today may seem even a little naive to some, according to Zander, should have allowed people to better understand themselves. The section “Traders” featured photographs not only of representatives of trade, such as small shopkeepers or salesmen, but also portraits of artisans, engineers, industrialists and even inventors. The “Farmer” section included archetypes of “earthly people,” that is, photographs of not only peasants and farmers, but also philosophers and sages. The photographs in the “City” section were presented in a wide variety – here were street teenagers, travelers, and beggars. This section can be conditionally attributed to the genre of “street photography” known today.
The heroines of the “Women” section were wives and daughters, mothers and sisters of all ages. Women are also depicted in a variety of archetypes, ranging from simple housewives to socialite fashionistas. In the “Artists” section you can see many acquaintances and friends of the German photographer himself. Finally, last section entitled “The Last People” was dedicated to those characters who, for one reason or another, found themselves thrown out of German society (disabled people, the mentally ill, beggars and tramps). It should be noted that it was for these portrait photographs that August Sander was persecuted by the Ministry of Culture of Nazi Germany, whose representatives believed that such photographic works undermined the idea of the German race as strong, heroic and pure.
The thirties of the last century became tragic in many ways for the work of August Sander and himself. During this period, the political movement of National Socialism, which was subsequently destined to turn the entire history of mankind, was gaining momentum in Germany. After the Nazis came to power, the photo album “Faces of Our Time” was banned, and the photographer himself was suspected of distributing anti-fascist literature. Sander's son was arrested and imprisoned in 1934 for participating in the anti-Nazi movement.
During World War II, August Sander left Cologne and settled in Reiland, where he printed pre-war photographs of soldiers killed in the war for their families and friends. At the end of the war, his son died in prison. During the endless bombing, the Cologne photo studio was destroyed, although some of the negatives were still saved. True, many of them later turned out to be kidnapped by looters.
After a period of oblivion, the well-deserved fame returned to the German photographer in the early 50s, when the Photokina exhibition was held. August Sander not only received prestigious photographic awards, but was also awarded the highest state award Germany - Title of Knight of the Order of the Cross of Merit.
Zander died in 1963 after a stroke. Unfortunately, he never saw the end result of the main work of his life - the completed series of photographs from the project “People of the 20th Century” was published only some time after the death of the famous German classic of photographic portraiture.
August Sander was born in 1876 in the German town of Herdorf, in the family of a carpenter working in the mining industry. While still a schoolboy, August became very interested in photography and began helping a local photographer. Later, Uncle Augusta helped him acquire his own camera, as well as set up his own laboratory, where the young photographer printed his first photographs.
While serving in the army in 1897-1899, Zander was a photographer's assistant, and after service he traveled around the country for some time, working as a photographer and photographing various kinds of industrial and architectural objects.
In 1901, he began working in a photo studio in Linz, Austria, and within a year he became a full partner, and eventually in 1904, Sander managed to buy out the photo studio. He remained in Linz until 1909, after which he went to Cologne, where he also founded a photography studio.
It was in Cologne that August Sander began a project that, perhaps, became the main and most significant art project throughout his life - "People of the 20th Century" ("People of the 20th Century"). The photographer’s goal was to create a “group portrait of the German people.” By the way, this name was later very widely discussed, because Zander photographed exclusively Germans, which actually meant that “man” and “German” for him were one and the same thing. Be that as it may, he worked on his grandiose project until the mid-1950s.
By the way, back in 1929 his book “Face of our Time"(Face of Our Time"), consisting of 60 portraits. Later, when Hitler (Adolf Hitler) came to power in Germany, this book was banned - it did not fully correspond to “racial aesthetics”.
In general, under Hitler, Sander had a somewhat uncomfortable time, although in general August Sander did not suffer from the regime in any way, with the exception that his son Erik was arrested in 1934 because of his membership in the Socialist Workers' Party. SAP) By the way, Eric's fate turned out to be very sad - he was subsequently sentenced to 10 years, and he died in prison, shortly before the end of his sentence in 1944.
During the Nazi regime, Augustus himself took up architectural and landscape photography, and he continued his project “People of the 20th Century” in secret.
At the beginning of World War II, Sander left Cologne for the provinces, and it later turned out that this was how he saved his archive. So, in 1944, his studio was destroyed by a bomb. However, it was still not possible to save the archive completely - in 1946, part of Zander’s negatives was destroyed by robbers.
Best of the day
Continuing to work, Zander accumulated material, but overall this did not bring him fame. His name became known only in the early 1950s, when his works began to be exhibited. By the end of the decade, August Sander became an honorary member of the German Photographic Society. However, the main work of Zander's life - "People of the 20th Century" - was published after the photographer's death.
It is known that one of the craters on the planet Mercury (Mercury crater Sander) is named after August Sander.
