AUGUST SANDER GEB (Masters of Photography S.) - Tapa dura

An unobtrusive portrait photographer who knew what he wanted from his subjects at the onset of his career, August Sander is the photographer of the soul and the chronicler of an age.

A meticulous workman and driven artist, he photographed the defeated citizenry of Germany in 1918, who needed photo identification cards for the occupying forces. By 1929 he had photographed all classes and types of the German people. Sander came under the influence of modern art and its vocal intellectual practitioners, whom he befriended in Cologne. It was through his discussions with them that he came to understand the importance of his portrait work and was encouraged to continue. He produced the first volume of an extended series he hoped would provide an exhaustive catalog, but by the 1930s his work fell into disfavor by the Nazis and was banned.

The photography of August Sander, resounding with clarity and expressiveness, comprises an extraordinary human document. This volume of the Masters of Photography series includes forty-three of his portraits that reveal a vast cross section of German society, from pastry chefs to industrialists, and provide a provocative glance at the Weimar Republic.

born in 1876 in Herdorf Sieg, Germany, August Sander began his portrait work in the early 1890s. In 1904 he opened a portrait studio in Linz, but many of his images were made in the homes and places of employment of his sisters. His book Antlitz der Zeit (Face of the Time, 1929) was the first volume of a proposed extended portrait series. But his photography was driven from the market place by the Gestapo and the printing plates were destroyed. Seeking refuge from the storms of war, sander retreated to Westerwald. Slowly recognition of his achievements came his way in the form of state and international honors. He died in 1964 at age eighty-eight in Cologne.