August Sander

1876–1964

In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Rooms

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Biography

August Sander (17 November 1876 – 20 April 1964) was a German portrait and documentary photographer. Sander's first book Face of our Time (German: Antlitz der Zeit) was published in 1929. Sander has been described as

"the most important German portrait photographer of the early twentieth century."

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Artworks

Left Right

August Sander Young Farmers

1914, printed 1996
August Sander Bricklayer

1928, printed 1990
August Sander Painter’s Wife [Helene Abelen]

c.1926, printed 1994
August Sander The Architect Hans Heinz Lüttgen and his Wife Dora

1926, printed 1990
August Sander Secretary at West German Radio in Cologne

1931, printed 1992
August Sander Pastrycook

1928, printed 1999
August Sander Farming Family

1913, printed 1990
August Sander Widower

1914, printed 1990

See all 184

Artist as subject

August Sander Photographer [August Sander]

1925, printed 1990
August Sander August Sander

1906, printed 1990
Gunther Sander August Sander

1956, printed 1990

Features

Left Right

Tate Etc

Otto Dix and August Sander: In the Eye of the Storm

Richard Evans

German artists Otto Dix and August Sander chronicled the rise and fall of the inter-war Weimar Republic, but their work …
List

Five things to know: August Sander

Explore five top things to know about one of the most significant and influential photographers of the twentieth century
Art Term

Photobook

The photobook is a book of photographs by a photographer that has an overarching theme or follows a storyline – …
Tate Papers

August Sander and the Artists: Locating the Subjects of New Objectivity

Dorothy C. Rowe

Dorothy C. Rowe sheds light on the role played by photographer August Sander among the group of artists known as …
Tate Papers

Face to Face? An Ethical Encounter with Germany’s Dark Strangers in August Sander’s People of the Twentieth Century

Katherine Tubb

August Sander’s portraits of marginalised subjects are often evoked as visual shorthand for his inclusive vision of the German nation. …
Tate Papers

Face-Off in Weimar Culture: The Physiognomic Paradigm, Competing Portrait Anthologies, and August Sander’s Face of Our Time

Wolfgang Brückle

August Sander’s photobook Face of Our Time is discussed in relation to interest in physiognomy in Weimar Germany. Much of …
Tate Papers

August Sander’s Der Bauer and the Pervasiveness of the Peasant Tradition

Christian Weikop

Examining August Sander’s Der Bauer group of photographs in relation to the historical representation of peasants in German art, Christian …
Tate Papers

August Sander’s Portraits of Persecuted Jews

Rose-Carol Washton Long

Countering the characterisation of August Sander’s work as politically neutral, Rose-Carol Washton Long argues that the ‘The Persecuted’ and ‘Political …
Tate Etc

Magical, powerful, simple, shocking: Four photographers on Street & Studio

Juergen Teller , Sarah Jones , David Goldblatt and Chris Killip

To coincide with Tate Modern's survey exhibition Juergen Teller enjoys the timeless charm of a Cecil Beaton portrait, David Goldblatt …
Essay

Cruel and tender

Carter Ratcliff

What is the place of documentary photography in art? This is the central question raised by Tate's first major exhibition …