August Sander: Father of modern portrait photography
By Ryan • Mar 24th, 2008 • Category: News for Creatives (archives), Photography
By Marianne Combs of Minnesota Public Radio:
“August Sander is considered by many photographers to be the father of the modern portrait. He’s influenced the likes of Diane Arbus, Irving Penn, and Walker Evans. An exhibition of a selection of his portraits is now on display at the Weinstein Gallery in Minneapolis.
Minneapolis, Minn. — The late August Sander is best known for his body of work called “People of the 20th Century.” In the 1920s and ’30s, both in his studio and out on his bike on muddy German country roads, Sander photographed every type of person he came across in an attempt to capture German society as a whole.
Sander photographed middle class families, farmers, students, blind children, war veterans, circus artists and beggars. In each photograph Sander had his subjects simply stare at the camera, and hold still.
Martin Weinstein of Weinstein Gallery declares Sander’s is his favorite photographer.
“For me what makes him a great photographer is the truthfulness of the portraits, the directness of the portraits,” says Weinstein. “It’s his attempt to not induce any type of emotion. Very few of the pictures are taken where people are laughing or smiling or making facial expressions.”
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