August Sander

August Sander was a German portrait and documentary photographer. Sander's first book Face of our Time was published in 1929. Sander has been described as "the most important German portrait photographer of the early twentieth century. During military service, August Sander was an assistant in a photographic studio in Trier; he then spent the following two years working in various studios elsewhere. By 1904 he had opened his own studio in Linz, Austria, where he met with success. He moved to a suburb of Cologne in 1909 and soon began to photograph the rural farmers nearby. Around three years later Sander abandoned his urban studio in favour of photographing in the field, finding subjects along the roads he travelled by bicycle. Man of the Twentieth Century" was Sander's monumental, lifelong photographic project to document the people of his native Westerwald, near Cologne, stating that we know that people are formed by the light and air, by their inherited traits, and their actions. We can tell from appearance the work someone does or does not do; we can read in his face whether he is happy or troubled," Sander photographed subjects from all walks of life and created a typological catalogue of more than six hundred photographs of the German people. Although the Nazis banned the portraits in the 1930s because the subjects did not adhere to the ideal Aryan type, Sander continued to make photographs. After 1934 his work turned increasingly to nature and architectural studies. - Wikipedia

August Sander’s work I find both influential and inspirational. Without being over constructed, over manipulated or in general just over the top he manages to photograph the natural human face as a portrait. His photographic collection is very effective and powerful and really makes you look and question the photograph. Whilst looking through August Sander’s work I noticed that a lot of his portraits although the subject is posed they show truth and realistically he is documenting the area and people surrounding him. I especially like the above photograph as it shows masculinity in its own right, I want to take all of my inspirations and interpret them using similar techniques when photographing Joe.