August Sander (1876-1964) became interested in photography while working in a mine in the city of Herdorf in the 1890s. He helped a local photographer, and in 1892 his uncle gave him a medium format camera, and since then he has not parted with the camera. Even when Zander served in the army, he was a photographer's assistant. After his service, he traveled around Germany for some time doing architectural and industrial photography. In 1901, Sander went to work in a photographic studio in the city of Linz. He turned out to be a talented worker: a year later he became a partner, and in 1904 he bought out the company, which became known as the August Sander Studio of Artistic Photography and Painting. That same year he received a gold medal at the Paris Photography Exhibition, and two years later his first personal exhibition took place in Linz.

In 1909 he sold his studio in Linz and moved to Cologne. Having opened a new studio there, August Sander began work on the main project in his life: “People of the Twentieth Century” - “Menschen des 20 Jahrhunderts”. The goal of the project was to create a group portrait of the German people, so the name was somewhat presumptuous, and perhaps for the photographer the concepts of “man” and “German” meant the same thing. Nevertheless, the idea was grandiose, and with some interruptions - military service during the First World War, a photographic expedition to Sardinia in 1927 - he worked on this project until the mid-1950s. In 1929, the book “The Face of Our Time” was published, containing 60 photographic portraits.

With Hitler's rise to power, August Sander's position became dangerous. In 1934, his son, a member of the Socialist Party of Germany, was arrested, and a little later, by order of the Ministry of Culture, the book “The Face of Our Time” was banned, in which, according to Nazi cultural experts, photographic portraits did not sufficiently correspond to “racial aesthetics.” Fortunately, Sander himself remained free and took up architectural and landscape photography, continuing to secretly work on “People of the Twentieth Century.” With the outbreak of World War II, he left Cologne and moved to the countryside, taking with him the remains of the negatives. With this, he saved his collection from the bomb that destroyed his studio in 1944 - but, as you can see, it is not easy to escape from fate: some of the negatives were destroyed by robbers in 1946.

Despite all the blows of fate and the fact that at the end of the 1940s his name was practically forgotten, August Sander continued to work hard. The photographer returned to his former fame in 1951 after the famous photo exhibition “Photokina”. In 1952, the Cologne Museum bought his pre-war photographs, and in 1955 Edward Steichen included several of his works in the famous exhibition “The Human Race”. In the late 1950s, August Sander was elected an honorary member of the German Photographic Society. As for the main work of his life, the project “People of the Twentieth Century,” it was published in its entirety only after the photographer’s death.

August Sander at his home

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We continue to publish articles by a famous photographer, teacher and author of a popular photo blog Ilya Rashap. His materials are read by thousands of people - from amateurs to professionals. Rashap's articles differ from others in their daring and provocative style, full of sarcasm and black humor. The author's style may seem a little harsh to you (because it is designed for regular readers), but believe me, this man knows what he is writing about! You can learn more about him from the information that Ilya gave to our magazine, as well as from his own articles.

Among those who sometimes look into my factory for burning photographers in the “Debriefing” section, sometimes there are pink ponies eating rainbows, who with tears in their eyes, wringing their hands, ask: “Ilya, why, why do you only scold and not praise anyone?”

Yes, for fuck's sake, dear horses, the whole point of this section is precisely that there is a lot of crap in me, looking for shortcomings. And at the same time, along the way, in an attempt to give people the opportunity to see in a photograph a little more than the sum of its parts.

But while I was thinking about this, preparing for the next “Debriefing,” the last thought caught my attention. For a very long time I refused to even try to describe the projects of famous authors, evaluate them or reveal their essence. The fact is that I am not an art critic or a philosopher. I just know a thing or two about photography and have a knack for shooting. “Take it with you so you don’t fall when walking.”

However, damn it, I’m not a textbook, it’s like I’m writing here, right? I'm just sharing my thoughts, what I know about photography... And in this context - why not?

Done with excuses, let's get to the point.

I decided not to waste time on trifles, but to immediately talk about what is perhaps the most global trend in contemporary art in terms of its philosophy – “Conceptual photography”.

And we will start with the founder of this direction August Sander. The photographer was born in Germany on November 17, 1876 in the family of a carpenter. He received his first camera as a birthday present from his uncle, and since then it has become his life's work. During his military service, August Sander worked as a photographer's assistant. In 1901, he got a job in a photographic studio, and subsequently opened his own business in the city of Cologne. Around 1911, Sander began his most famous photographic project, called "People of the 20th Century" (Menschen des 20 Jahrhunderts).

He worked in the portrait genre, photographing his contemporaries. In 1929, his book “Faces of Our Time” was published. During the heyday of the Third Reich, August Sander suffered from the Nazis, was arrested, and was in prison. His book was banned, and most of the materials and negatives were destroyed. We can say that Zander was persecuted primarily because of his creativity. During the period when Hitler came to power, his project was called inconsistent with the main ideology due to the fact that the series featured people of the "insufficiently Aryan race".

What did August Sander really do? The basis of his project was typology, analysis, and search for the human archetype of society of that time.

Drawing an analogy, we can call his series a “census of pre-war Germany,” a social portrait.
Zander cataloged his work in seven different groups, which were called "City", "Farmer", "Artist", "Woman" (this is lovely, I love chauvinism :)), "Skilled Tradesman", "Occupations and Professions", "Last People" "

At this point I would really like to draw your attention to the shooting style that is inherent in this entire project. I think this is especially important for understanding the meaning of creativity not only of this photographer; the same style is clearly visible among those people who later developed the direction of conceptual photography.

All these portraits are made in an absolutely dispassionate, even detached manner. This is a direct photocopy of reality, without any intervention by the artist. August Sander did not impose his prism of perception on the people he depicted in his portraits and did not interfere with their character. We do not see any compositional delights in his photographs, the search for an unusual angle or an imposed atmosphere; there is no play of light or any effects in them.

Essentially, we see “passport photos” of various people who lived in pre-war Germany. And this simplicity of August Sander gives the viewer that very “honesty” that is so necessary here.

Looking at these photographs, we do not study the thoughts of the photographer, his attitude, but we see real, very real and “living” people. They don’t play, they don’t try to tell us something, they don’t have a “game image”. There is only a memory cast that we can observe today. In memory of people.

I told you what I know. Let me now try to explain what I see...

Atlantis.

I see a world that was once very real, but today it is almost mythical. I see people, a society, that completely disappeared just a few years after these photos were taken.

This society, society, no longer exists. This world disappeared during the Second World War. Remember history, events - and you will understand that the society that August Sander showed that existed in pre-war Germany, and the one that lives there now, are two different worlds of people. That world... no longer exists, and we are looking at Atlantis, which rests on the bottom of the ocean.

If we try to draw an analogy, then in our country society before and after the Second World War remained practically unchanged. Whereas, if you take the pre-revolutionary society of Russia and the society of the USSR after the civil war, you will see another world that has disappeared forever - these are two different countries inhabited by different people. Socially, mentally, mentally different. Even genetically, for that matter.

Remember, your family probably has old photo albums in which you can find portraits of your great-grandparents, more distant ancestors who lived before the revolution. Have you ever looked at their faces - are they completely different people? And it’s not about the strongly changed facial features, it’s something completely different, something that cannot be verbalized in words alone.

When I look at these portraits, I see not just people, “skilled tradesmen, women and farmers,” but an era that has disappeared forever.

And I probably won’t write much, and you just look at the photographs of August Sander with the thought that I tried to convey to you.

Serious fame came to August Sander only in the 60s, and his book “People of the 20th Century” was published after his death.

His style of photography had a serious influence on many subsequent generations of photographers. Famous names include Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus and many others.

Finally, I would be interested in formulating one question directly related to the topic of Zander’s project. And it sounds like this: “If all the horrific events of World War II had not happened, if the world had not changed, would this project have the same value and meaning?”. I think everyone will answer this question for themselves. Moreover, it is almost rhetorical.

That's all, ladies and gentlemen, read the continuation of the article about conceptual photography soon.

August Sander, a German classic of photography, worked in various genres - he photographed architecture, city landscapes, and photographic portraits of different people. He did not specialize in children's photography; moreover, among his photographs there are not many images of children. But those children's photographic portraits of Zander that we can see today have an impact on the viewer almost greater than the photographs of recognized children's photographers.

You want to look at Zander’s photographs, which are simple and ordinary at first glance, again and again. The children in his photographs are not caught in moments of delight, they are not peeped into the joyful or bright moments of their lives, they just stand and look into the frame... It would seem that what is special here? But these Zander children sometimes look more alive and real than the children in many of today’s seemingly spontaneous and sincere shots. If you look closely at his photographs, behind each photograph you can read the whole world of a person, a whole story. August Sander himself said: “I do not set myself the task of creating an ideal portrait. My task is to show the personality in natural conditions, with all its advantages and disadvantages.” .

Today, a series of works by Zander “People of the 20th Century” is known, which is considered perhaps the most ambitious photographic project of the last century. August Sander worked on this topic for more than thirty years, and it became his life's work. As a result, he came up with a whole unique photo encyclopedia, which presents German society of the early 20th century in person. There are photographs of people hereof different professions and classes, these are men, women and children. In addition to the very idea of ​​photography, it is also united by a certain unified style of photography, which was later adopted by many photographers. Zander photographed people without unnecessary, extraneous things that distracted from the subject, in a familiar and characteristic environment for them; he photographed people at eye level or slightly below, which subconsciously puts the viewer on the same level as the character in the photograph, be it a doctor or a tramp, an adult or a child. And here, among other portraits in the series, are photographs of children:

Zander’s photographs of children are no different from photographic portraits of adults, the same serious faces, the same shooting at the child’s eye level. Today this technique is recommended to be used for photographing children in almost every manual and article on this topic, but at the beginning of the twentieth century this method was not common. The children in these photos do not play and almost do not smile, and at the same time, such photographs do not give any depressing or even sad impression. They remain bright and interesting without bright and interesting moments. And the secret, it seems to me, is that Zander had an approach to children as ordinary people, as adults, an approach without any special approach - it is thanks to this that the inner world of his characters is revealed. In most of today's children's photographs we see children as we would like to see them - sweet, touching, naive and funny, cheerful and enthusiastic. Zander has children, like all his photographic heroes, and this is his distinctive feature as an artist - they are who they are, without the aspirations of the viewer - they are individuals, with a deep inner world. Maybe this is precisely why children themselves most quickly find contact with those people who do not fawn on them or coo, but communicate as equals, because it is children who sense falsehood more acutely than anyone else

	Born in the town of Herdorf, near Cologne (Germany), in the family of a carpenter and a peasant woman.
	Goes to work at a mine as a miner's apprentice
	Receives a camera as a gift and, with the help of his parents, sets up his first darkroom
	Serving in the army as an apprentice photographer
	Travels around Germany, engaged in commercial and industrial photography.
	Taking a painting course in Dresden
	Starts working at Photographic Studio Graf in the Austrian city of Linz
	Buys a photo studio in shares with a business partner
	Gold medal at the Paris Photo Exhibition
	Buys the photo studio into his own ownership and renames the enterprise August Sander Studio for Pictorial Arts of Photography and Painting. Experiments with color photography
	First solo exhibition of August Sander in the Landhaus exhibition hall in Linz
	Sells his studio in Linz, moves to Trier and then to the suburbs of Cologne. Creates a new studio. Begins work on the project “People of the 20th Century”
	Engaged in architectural and industrial photography. During World War I he served in the German army as a photographer.
	Photo album “Faces of Our Time” published
	Appears on the radio with a series of lectures on the topic “The Nature and Development of Photography”
	Arrest and imprisonment of August Sander's son Erich
	The photo album “Faces of Our Time” was banned by the Ministry of Culture of Nazi Germany. The remains were confiscated and the negatives were destroyed.
	Moves briefly from Cologne to the countryside (Rheiland).
	Erich Sander dies in prison. August Sander's studio in Cologne destroyed by bombing
	Most of the photographer's archive of negatives was stolen
	The works of August Sander are presented at the first Photokina exhibition. Cologne buys documentary photographs of pre-war cityscapes from Sander.
	The photographer's work was selected by Edward Steichen for participation in the exhibition “The Human Race”
	Receives the Cross of Merit, Germany's highest award
	After several months of serious illness, he died in Cologne

“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. The 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 entirely 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 in 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 solo exhibition of August Sander took place in the Landhaus exhibition hall in Linz.
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. The new project, which was called “People of the 20th Century,” became the work of August Sander’s life. Filming of the series continued for more than thirty years, without interruption either by the First World War (which Sander experienced as a war photographer), or by the photographer’s only trip outside Germany - to Sardinia (1927), where he photographed landscapes and, of course, local people. 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 it fascinated the photographer, 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 the general title “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 character’s personality. August Sander said: “Our idea of ​​people is formed 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.”

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 sense 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 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.

Photos from the 1900s - 1930s.

Farmer couple, Westerwald, 1912

Village resident. Westerwald, 1913

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, Augustus 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 did not leave him the 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 Photography and Painting. August began to receive substantial income from his professional activities, and 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 to fulfill 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, August Sander’s life’s work became a grandiose project called “People of the 20th Century”.

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 for filming outside of Germany, to go to Sicily to photograph picturesque landscapes and local residents. During 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” became the main creative achievement of 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, the 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 were in many ways tragic 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 received not only prestigious photographic awards, but was also awarded the highest state award of Germany - the 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.