August Sander

August Sander

August Sander was born and lived in Germany. He started his great project around 1910; his aim was to produce a kind of catalogue of representative types of German Society – ‘Man in the Twentieth Century’. His portraits of individuals and small groups often show them in their working clothes and sometimes in their work environments, and are captioned by occupation – school-teacher, musician, student, farmer, peasant, baker, unemployed man… or sometimes by their relationships – twins, widower with sons. Although the Nazis banned the portraits in the 1930s because the subjects did not adhere to the ideal Aryan type, Sander continued to make photographs. After 1934 his work turned increasingly to nature and architectural studies.

My favorite image from his Man of the twentieth century series.

http://www.masters-of-fine-art-photography.com

August Sanders work really inspires my photography because his photographs have a real old-fashioned feel to them. This is because they were taken almost 100 years ago, but they could still be modern now. The poses he used may be portrait style, but the beautiful tones and shadows really make them interesting. The history of photography is something I am really interested in learning more about.