Exercise : August Sander - MOMA

http://www.oca-student.com/resource-type/asandersfmoma-0


IMAGES FOR AUGUST SANDER

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=august+sander+photographs&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=D9igUpmpA9G0hAfK14HwBg&ved=0CC8QsAQ&biw=1178&bih=613




ZED NELSON

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2011/mar/12/goodbye-to-all-that-zed-nelson-photographs?INTCMP=SRCH


PENN

http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/penn/


AUGUST SANDER - PEOPLE OF THE 20TH CENTURY

More than 200 images were part of the exhibition from the photographers monumental portrait of German society, made for the most part between the two world wars.  August Sander was hailed as an aviator of modern photography. He was a commercial photographer specialising in architectural and  industrial photographer. Through this project Sander created a compelling record of the world and time in which he lived by making direct, descriptive posed portraits of ordinary people from a broad cross section of German society.  Farmer, bricklayer, painter, secretary etc ..  He had some 45 portfolios which were then split into 7 further groups ..

The Farmer
The Skilled Tradesman
The Woman
Classes and Professionals
The Artist
The City
The Last People

Sander worked on this project until his death in 1964.  He was forced at one point to stop work and has thousands of negatives confiscated and destroyed.  He later relocated and sat out the war years.

The first section of the exhibition The Farmer showed his familiarity with the rural environment and his view that the farmer as the basic archetype of society.  This first section also included a portfolio of 12 photos that Sander created as a prologue to the total project.
The Skilled Tradesman - the bricklayer , the locksmith, shoemaker etc.. also included industrialists, technicians and inventors.
The Woman - women largely appear in a relationship with someone else for example the innkeepers wife. There were later images of women in their own right, as nun, dressmaker, secretary etc..
Classes and Professionals - sub sections - The clergymen - the teacher and educator - the business man.
The Artist - Ranges from world class conductor to cafe musician. Film actor to touring player.
The City - Urban dwellers, circus artist, gypsies, transients, city youth.  Also included are persecuted jewish citizens, foreign workers and political prisoners.
The Last People  - people on society's outermost perimeters - the sick, the old, the frail, people born with mental or physical disabilities. Also in this section is a picture of his son Erich, in a death mask, he died as a political prisoner.

I can see that these groups are effective and you can see how these people group together.  I wonder if by looking at all the portraits he could see the groups emerge.  Women would be proud to be in their own group, but then disappointed to find they were 'someones wife'.. not there in their own right but that seems to change as the years pass.  Today I feel women would definitely be there in their own right, it would be a much stronger group.
The group I feel uncomfortable with is the last one The Last People.  I can see how they become a group but to actually put all these people together seems wrong to me.  Maybe at the time it was acceptable but I wouldn't have wanted to find myself in that group.  These people could have been put in other groups.  I think most of these groupings would be effective for other photographers to use with a FEW alterations.