Extraordinary Images Of Ordinary People
Among the black-and-white photographs of moustachioed police officers, middle-class mothers and farmers in their Sunday best on display at the Art Gallery of NSW is a portrait of an older man with dishevelled hair and a twinkle in his eyes.
His name is August Sander, the photographer who made it his life’s work to create a photographic record of the German people. By the time he died in 1964, Sander had taken about 50,000 photographs.
When business was slow at his commercial studio in Cologne, he would load his tripod, large-format camera and glass negative plates onto his bike and cycle through the surrounding countryside, taking photos of peasants, country girls and manual labourers.
In the city he took studio shots of middle-class professionals and wealthy tradesmen, but he also sought out the disabled, the insane and the dying. He divided his images into seven categories: The Farmer, The Skilled Tradesman, The Woman, Classes and Professions, The Artists, The City and The Last People.
This exhibition of 155 photographs, being shown in Sydney only, acknowledges August Sander’s interest in typologies and his aim to produce a definitive ‘atlas’ of the German people. Also included are Sander’s photographs of the landscape surrounding Cologne, and of the interior of his home and studio.
17 November 2007 – 3 February 2008
Rudy Komon gallery, Upper Level
Art Gallary of NSW