The exhibition was given the title August Sander 'In photography there are no unexplained shadows', which was one of Sander's many aphorisms. The principal part of the exhibition on which I will concentrate here, centres on selected images from Sander's major life work, People of the 20th Century. This body of work represents a valuable record of the population of Weimar Germany between about 1914 and the 1930s and is divided into seven categories. The Farm Worker, The Working Man, The Woman, The Professions, The Artists, The City, and The Last People. The exhibition also includes a selection of the work Sander made in the Rhineland and Cologne together with some photographs of his studio and studies of plant life.
August Sander is probably considered by most photo-historians as one of the most important figures in 20th century photography. He was born in the Rhineland in 1876 and spent his photographic apprenticeship years in Linz, moving back to Germany in 1910 when he established his photographic studio in Cologne. In the 1920s when he started working on People of the 20th Century, the direct, no-nonsense approach to portraiture which he then adopted was radical. Having established a 10-year reputation as a successful portrait photographer working in the then fashionable pictorial style, he decided to abandon pictorialism in favour of a more truthful approach to photographing people which he believed to be appropriate for this project. There were two factors which appeared to have played a major part in prompting Sander to embark on People of the 20th Century and which affected such a sea-change in his way of working. Firstly there was his association with radical artists in Cologne such as Hoerle and Serveit who profoundly influenced his thinking. Christoph Schreier wrote in his essay at the front of the catalogue for the exhibition called Historical document and artistic masterpiece: The photography of August Sander: 'Conversations and debates with these radical artists not only gave him (Sander) a keener view of the social situation in Germany, but also led him to break with pictorialism, to turn towards 'exact photography', upon which he conferred moral qualities.' Secondly Sander was profoundly influenced by the effects of the first world war. After this historical catastrophe he, in common with many contemporary artists, felt a need to pare away the superficialities in their art and concern themselves less with pure aesthetics and more with the realities of life in a country brought to its knees by the devastation of the most horrific encounter in modern memory. After all, it was no longer possible to think that God was in his heaven and all was well with the world and artists felt compelled to be mindful of the conditions of the time. According to his grandson, Gerd Sander, who is now the curator of the August Sander archive held in the SK Stiftung Kultur in Cologne, Sander had always expressed himself in painting as well as photography. But to use Christoph Schreier's observation '...he (Sander) saw the medium of photography - unlike that of painting - as being committed to the truth, to the authentic depiction of reality which it was to commemorate to contemporaries and posterity.'
The post-war years saw the growth of the machine which was to revolutionise the lives of most of the inhabitants of the progressive western world. In this machine-orientated age the advancing technology was making the camera more 'user-friendly'. Its size was reduced and it no longer needed the support of a tripod. Photography was starting to become accessible to the ‘many', as well as the privileged ‘few’ and the avant-garde movements also began to view the ‘new medium more favourably as a viable mode of expression in its own right, and more than a means of emulating painting. As the influential artist and Bauhaus lecturer, Lazlo Moholy Nagy, said in 1927: Nothing in the history of painting - either from the past or today can begin to compete with the power of photography. Why make these comparisons with Rembrandt or Picasso?' Although Sander had used painting as an expressive outlet, he believed that it was only photography with its unique ability to portray the ‘truth' as he saw it, which was the appropriate medium for his major undertaking. In his article in the catalogue, Thoughts on my grandfather, Gerd Sander quotes from his grandfather's 1927 Declaration of Faith in Photography': Nothing seemed more appropriate to me than to capture in photography a picture of our time which is absolutely true to nature.'
Prompted therefore by an ethical craving to depict the 'truth' which photography alone, he believed, could accomplish, Sander embarked on a study of the German race categorising it by profession, occupation, status, and in some instances by physical or mental characteristics. He made a conscious decision to reject the affectations of the portrait studio with its potted palms and pastoral backgrounds in favour of simplicity. His subjects, either seated or standing, usually faced squarely to the camera and no attempt was made to flatter. As Christoph Schreier said: 'Thus from the early twenties, instead of the idealising tendencies of art photography, what Sander required was a precise vision accompanied by an analytical gaze which he was able to turn - quite naturally - to the analysis of society.'
In considering this body of work, was it the almost unprecedented sociological character and massive size of the undertaking which played a major part in formulating Sander's world-wide reputation as much as the work itself? Sander seemed to view his undertaking as a mission of social importance, but how much did it tell us about German society? Christoph Schreier found Sander's categorisation of the German society far from comprehensive. He said: '...of course his (Sander's) collection of portraits should not be seen as a scientifically accurate depiction of society.' and he continued'...certain social groups are clearly over-represented, while others, such as the industrial work force, are only represented in rare examples.' And it seemed to me that without titles there was little to identify the category into which many of Sander's subjects fell. Some were recognisable from their clothing, such as the boxers (Boxers,1929 - p61) and the equestrian (Equestrian, Vienna, 1930 - p63) but others such as the well-to-do farmer and his wife (Gentleman farmer, 1924 - p57) adorned in evening clothes bore no identifying characteristics and could have been mistaken for a wealthy couple from several other occupations. However, perhaps I have missed the point. Perhaps Sander did not deem it necessary to include the tools of his subjects' trade or the ambience of the places of work in their portraits. Perhaps this was part of the simplicity Sander aimed for - a paring away of the artifacts of everyday life in order to reveal the person within.
Leaving aside questions of whether or not Sander's depiction of the German race had been deficient, or whether his subjects' professions, trades or status in life could be ascertained from the photographs. The more important question should perhaps be whether he was successful in finding the 'truth' which he sought so ardently. What then was the truth for which Sander searched? The truth of the individual's character or a true portrayal of the German race? We have been told that in his categorisations of the German race his portrayal had not been comprehensive. Was he successful therefore, in revealing more truthful representations of his subjects by setting them in often uncharacteristic surroundings, away from both the studio an place of work?
I find myself unable to come to a conclusion about the 'truth' in this work. I can only say that for me its strength lay in both the honest and direct contact with the camera which Sander managed to elicit from his subjects, and the overall impression of the exhibition which I found moving due in large part to its conception - its evocation of so many figures from one particular time and place. But I have reservations about an aridity in some of his depictions, and although not, one imagines, intended ever to appear out of context, some of his images would not hold my attention for long if asked to do so. For instance-a picture such as Gymnastics club from Puderbach, Westerwald, c. 1928-1930 -p62) on its own is appears to be little more than a record. And I am also confused when Sander shows the 'Communist leader, 192- p77) and the 'Dadaist, Berlin, 1929 - p78),on following pages in the catalogue who resemble each other so much that they could be interchangeable except for the Dadaist's monocle and more abundant hair. Again Sander may have been making the point that it is not always necessary to label people by their exterior appearance; by omitting was he perhaps encouraging the viewer towards a deeper consideration of his subjects?
Of course there are many pictures which I found could easily stand alone such as the famous 'Young farm workers, 1914 (p39 where the strength is in the formal contrasts between the stances of two almost identically posed youths and the jaunty cigarette smoker with walking stick and hat askew, combined with the youths’almost insolent bearing
To the contemporaries of his day Sander's portrayals may well have appeared to have had more
in common with records made for official purposes than with portraits. Christoph Schreier
quotes a contemporary view in Gottfried Boehm's fundamental investigation of the portrait, 'a
portrait in which the sitter acts as representative of a professional group or a social class
contradicts the rigid criteria of traditional portraiture, whose theme is the individual, the single
person.' But to the viewer from the latter end of the 20th century who is bombarded daily with
more and more sophisticated imagery, the very artlessness of Sander's photographs is beguiling.
Of course historically Sander's People of the 20th Century has great significance as a record of
its time. But there is no doubt that in spite of my reservations concerning some individual
images, Sander’s heroic purpose and honesty of vision wins through and helps to make
this work much more than a document. It is of course a compelling artistic achievement.
(C)Janet Hall 1997.