August Sander was boring in 1876 in Herdof, near Cologne. As a youther he worked as an aprentice in the local coalmine, where he was one day chosen as a guide to a photographer commissioned by the mine owneres. This was his first introduction to the camer.

From 1918, he travelled through the Westerwold countryside, systematically taking portraits of the different ‘types’, tradespeople, classes and individuals he came accross. Moving in ‘progressive art’ circles, from 1920 began to the formulate his great project, ‘People of the Twenttieth Centuary’.

His first exhibition was held in the Cologne and was well known and respected, as the 30′s progressed, sander fell faul of the arising power of the Nazis, who aproved neither of the style of photography, nor his inclusive approach to his subjects. In the late 30′s, the Gestapo destroyed some of his work and Sander retreated into landscape photography during the Second World War.

More negatives were destroyed in 1944, his his Cologne studio was hit by a bomb. After the war, helfped by his son, Gunther, August Sander salvaged the remains of his archive. The work was ‘rediscovered’ in the early 50′s.

Looking at Sander’s series of images i am really amazed and find the images very strong. In each image you see so much about the person and backgrounds, the details are amazing.

From looking at the images you can tell the class of the people, the images have great compoisition and the use of light on the subject is used incredibly well to compliment the person.

I think all the images above are very strong images, and are of people in their environment and surroundings they are comfortable in. I hope that When I get to Korea I can get some decent portraiture of the people there like this.

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