August Sander People Of The 20th Century People of the 20th Century

With People of the 20th Century, August Sander created a monumental work that is unique in the history of photography and a classic of photographic literature. Sander conceived this large-scale project, which he ultimately never completed, in the 1920s. He was to spend the rest of his life working on it, his objective nothing less than a complete typological portrait of contemporary society. Hundreds of portraits classified according to professional, social or family criteria were to provide a representative picture of the various social groups. He envisaged seven groups labeled: ''The Farmer'', ''The Skilled Tradesman'', ''The Woman'', ''Classes and Professions'', ''The Artists'', ''The City'' and--on the theme of age, illness and death--''The Last People''. We have now condensed out 2002 seven-volume edition of the artist's complete oeuvre into one large volume presenting ''the essential'' People of the 20th Century.