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Face of Our Time
One of the legendary classics among German photography books, August Sander's Face of Our Time, is now available again. Compiled by August Sander himself, the book was first published in 1929, with a foreword by German writer Alfred Döblin.
On its first publication, it was advertised as follows: ''The sixty shots of twentieth-century Germans which the author includes in his Face of Our Time represent only a small selection drawn from August Sander's major work, which he began in 1910 and which he has spent twenty years producing and adding fresh nuances to. The author has not approached this immense self-imposed task from an academic standpoint, nor with scientific aids, and has received advice neither from racial theorists nor from social researchers. He has approached his task as a photographer from his own immediate observations of human nature and human appearances, of the human environment, and with an infallible instinct for what is genuine and essential."
On its first publication, it was advertised as follows: ''The sixty shots of twentieth-century Germans which the author includes in his Face of Our Time represent only a small selection drawn from August Sander's major work, which he began in 1910 and which he has spent twenty years producing and adding fresh nuances to. The author has not approached this immense self-imposed task from an academic standpoint, nor with scientific aids, and has received advice neither from racial theorists nor from social researchers. He has approached his task as a photographer from his own immediate observations of human nature and human appearances, of the human environment, and with an infallible instinct for what is genuine and essential."
- GenresPhotographyNonfictionArt
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1929
72 people want to read
About the author
August Sander
34 books4 followersAugust Sander (1876-1964) was a German photographer whose work documented the society he lived in. Lauded as one the most important portrait photographers of the early 20th century, Sander focused his gaze on bricklayers, farmers, bakers, and other members of the community. “Nothing seemed to me more appropriate than to project an image of our time with absolute fidelity to nature by means of photography,” he once declared. “Let me speak the truth in all honesty about our age and the people of our age.”
Born in Herdorf, Germany on November 17, 1876, Sanders learned photography during his military service in the city of Trier. By 1910, he had moved to a suburb of Cologne, spending his days biking along the roads to find people to photograph. By the time the Nazi regime rose to power in the 1930s, Sander was considered an authority on photography and recognized for his book Face of Our Time (1929). During this era, he faced both personal persecution and the systematic destruction of his work. Following the death of his son in 1944, and the destruction of his work in 1946, Sander practically ceased photography altogether. He died in Cologne, Germany on April 20, 1964 at the age of 87.
Today, the artist’s works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, among others.
Born in Herdorf, Germany on November 17, 1876, Sanders learned photography during his military service in the city of Trier. By 1910, he had moved to a suburb of Cologne, spending his days biking along the roads to find people to photograph. By the time the Nazi regime rose to power in the 1930s, Sander was considered an authority on photography and recognized for his book Face of Our Time (1929). During this era, he faced both personal persecution and the systematic destruction of his work. Following the death of his son in 1944, and the destruction of his work in 1946, Sander practically ceased photography altogether. He died in Cologne, Germany on April 20, 1964 at the age of 87.
Today, the artist’s works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, among others.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 21, 2021
one of my favorite image creators. He collected, sampled, analyzed and portrayed an entire population. With a clinical and yet never critical eye.
March 13, 2017
The facsimile edition of August Sander's first book is nicely done of a reasonable grade of paper and accessible to everyone (price-wise). It includes Alfred Doblin's original introductory essay, which is a bit odd (as he himself puts it, a large balloon carrying a rather small basket). Doblin's point revolves around the notion of distance providing a sort of idealizing character, which contributes to the perception of larger truths. This certainly seems to work with Sander, for the further we get from this place and time the more we seem to learn from it.
September 17, 2023
I found out about this book after watching a video about physiognomy. It's a pretty good reference source for a historic understanding of sociology. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyUT2DxBiDM
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews