Keeping it real …
August Sander has been dubbed the “Balzac of the lens”. Beginning in the 1910s, he set out to create one of the 20th century’s greatest portrait photography series. Using straightforward perspective, natural light and unflinchingly realist photos, his project was epic: to document the whole of German society.
Box clever …
Portraits were divided by archetype, from sage to farmer. In 1929’s Boxers, he captures the quirks that make each of his subjects unique human beings. The man on the left was a popular district champion.
A technicality …
Glossy paper, hitherto reserved for technical photos, enabled Sander to create detailed images, the opposite of soft studio portraits that aped painting.
Blockheads …
In 1936, the Nazis destroyed the printing blocks for his book Face of Our Time, unsettled by its challenge to the Aryan ideal.
Things to come …
Sander’s influence can be seen throughout 20th-century photography, from Diane Arbus to the Bechers. Skye Sherwin
August Sander: Men Without Masks, Hauser & Wirth, W1, to 28 Jul
