Week 12: People of the Twentieth Century by August Sander

Monday, October 06, 2014 Ching Lea Yee 0 Comments

Since for Project 3 my focus will be on photographing people at work, Ms Ho has recommended that I look into the works of August Sander as a reference for photographing people and their occupations. In this series, we can see how the tools of trades of the people were often included into the composition of the photograph in order to bring the context to the subject matter. I will be using a similar method when photographing my subjects by making them pose with their tools of trade. I like how the subject in August Sander's People of the Twentieth Century series look directly into the camera and this creates a connection between the photograph and the person viewing it. Thus, another element to note in photographing portraits is eye contact. 

People of the Twentieth Century, the collective portrait of German society made by German photographer August Sander, has fascinated viewers from its earliest presentation in a 1927 exhibition and the controversial publication of a selection of 60 images in the book Face of the Time published two years later. Despite Sander's dedication over five decades to the idea and compilation of this portrait atlas of the German people, the project remained unfinished. Nonetheless, his photographs remain compelling, in part because he chose to categorize his subjects by profession or social class. The images are thus representations of types, as he intended them to be, rather than portraits of individuals.

Sander believed that society was organized into a hierarchy of occupations. One section of his project is dedicated to the skilled tradesman, including master craftsmen, industrialists, technicians, and inventors. Subjects associated with intellectual or "white-collar" labor were usually photographed indoors in three-quarter-length poses, while master craftsmen were portrayed in their working environment with the tools of their trades. Portrayed as he emerges from the dark basement of a building, the coal carrier in the image above belongs to the lower ranks of labor and is symbolically associated with the bowels of German society.