Presentation Notes on August Sander

1.      TITLE PAGE- “August Sander Emulation”

For the emulation module I was given the photographer August Sander.

2.      “August Sander and his Background” (Self-portrait of Sander included)

Sander was born in 1876 and later died in 1964. He was born in Herdorf, and was the son of a carpenter working in the mining company. He first learned about photography when he assisted another photographer working for a mining company, he spent his military career as a photographer’s assistant and later in 1911 had his own photography studio, which was later ruined by a bomb in 1941. Sander was later described as “the most important German portrait photographer of the early 20^th Century”, showing the real impact his work created on the current German society and now.  In his work Sander favoured using large format cameras with rather lengthy exposure times.

3.      “Background continued…” (Image of Sander over landscape and cover of Faces our

Time)

He once spoke “Let me speak the truth in all honesty about our age,” showing his desire to capture the German community that surrounded him.  Sander’s first book “Faces our time” published in 1929, was later seized and destroyed by the Nazis, they destroyed the printing blocks and banned sales of existing copies in 1936; it held 60 portraits of the people in his community. It was banned due to it presenting a “vision of society that contradicted the official one”.  He was then forced to turn his attention to German landscapes.

4.      “Portraiture” (Images of soldier (Left), and 2 children (right))

Sander’s black and white portraiture was his most credible work. It was said he would apparently get on his bicycle and ride around with his photographic equipment and would approach strangers if he thought they were suitable for his subjects in his photographs. It seemed he would approach everybody he came across; he didn’t have a specific sort of person for his subjects, though at first he concentrated on occupations.  His portraiture series was named “People of the twentieth century”, which was a collection of 600 portraits. The series began by him photographing farmers only; it then started to turn into an accurate reflection of the Weimar society. Sander put the images into 7 categories; - the farmers, the skilled tradesman, the women, Classes and Professions, the artists, the city and the last people. The photographs seemed to capture the everyday lives of everyday people and the fashions at that time. The left image here is titled “Young Soldier”, taken in Westerwald in 1945. Sander seemed to create quite a relationship with the people he photographed. The right image is of two children, the photograph evokes status through the clothes and surroundings of the two subjects.

5.      “Portraiture continued…” (Image of old man sitting and women at gas station)

The portraits themselves are bold yet quite delicate. In the majority of his portraits he has the camera in line with the eyes of the person/ people being photographed. They are often looking straight into Sanders lens. The people are also always in the centre of his compositions. The straight on approach gives the viewer the impression the people have a certain amount of confidence in who they are. As they look into the camera, we get an idea they have confidence, it is as if they are confronting the Nazis, saying you cannot stop us from being the people we are. As we look at these portraits the surroundings of the people varies, Sander either takes the people to his studio or photographs them in their current location giving the viewer more of an idea into their lives and background. The people also are either seated or standing straight in the centre of the photographs.

6.      Most famous Sander Portrait

This photograph is probably one of Sanders most famous portraits. It is titled “Young Farmers in their Sunday Best”, taken in 1914. It is one of his first portraits as he started photographing only farmers. The three young countrymen pose for Sander on the way to a dance. The photograph shows the farmers in their normal environment of a field yet in suits, quite a contrast. The landscape behind is noticeable yet not fully focused, as it would take away some of the emphasis on the men. The man in the middle looks to be the leader; it may be that they were brothers, and he was the older one of the three.

7.      “Landscape” (Image of tree branches)

After Sanders first book was banned and destroyed by the Nazis, Sanders only option was     was to photograph German landscapes. His landscapes were included in the book “Seeing, Observing and Thinking”. His landscape work was overlooked by his portraiture and its importance in depicting society. He seemed to capture the natural beauty of Germany, through the scenes captured. His nature photographs included small animals/ insects for example snails, plants and trees.

8.      “Landscape continued…” (Image of Rhine)

The left photograph is titled “Loop at the Rhine near Boppard”; he focused his landscape photography around the Rhine. The landscapes are quite dramatic and powerful. They are usually in black and white or sepia. His landscapes seemed to capture his loyalty and passion of his German surroundings.

9.      “Hand studies” (Image from Seeing, Observing)

Hand studies were very common at the time of Sanders work. The photographs of hands also feature in the book “Seeing, Observing, and Thinking”. The photographs depict the feelings of the person at that time or their hobbies/ personality. There is power in the clasped hand here.

10.  “Seeing, Observing, Thinking

This book seemed to be a portfolio of Sanders photography, it contained his portraiture, landscapes, hand studies, and insect/ plant studies. It gives the reader a wider view of Sander. The book also contains introductory text and a transcript of a radio lecture titled “Photography as a Universal Language”, from 1931.

11.  “Ideas for Emulation”

Looking at the photographs/ themes of Sanders work, I wanted to try both photographs which involve hand studies and also portraits of people. To start with I did some photographs of one person throughout a couple of days to show her different state and clothes. I also then went on to try some hand studies to capture people’s hobbies and actions.

12.  Test shots- Portraits (Image of Hannah with dog)

For my portraiture, I wanted to photograph the same   person for a number of days capturing her different states at different times of the day, in this case my sister. This relates to Sanders work because his images capture the fashions and status of the people he photographs. I wanted to adopt his straight forward approach having the person looking straight into the lens of the camera. I also adopted the black and white style. I wanted to have my sister’s bedroom as the context of the photographs. In the portraits I used the same compositional context. I used a window in the compositions to give an idea of time and therefore context. I have also included a clock for the same reason. In this image the dog was in the room at the time so I thought I would use this is an advantage. I wanted to keep the people/ animals in the photograph looking straight into the camera. The dog gives a hint to the viewer of the person’s life and personality.

13.  Test shots Portraits continued (image of Hannah after shower in pjs)

This image was taken at night so therefore I had to add an extra light to the room on the right. In the image I captured my sister in her nightwear, having just been in the shower, the reason for her wet hair.

14.  Test shots- hand studies (image of comfort)

For my test shots of hand studies I wanted to just document people’s hobbies and actions throughout the day. Sanders hands seem to capture personality similarly. In these photographs I kept Sanders approach of black and white. In this image I saw my sibling holding a hot water bottle; I thought this was a good opportunity to capture a sense of comfort.

15.  Test shot- hands (Cooking)

In a notable hand photograph of Sanders, he photographed a man doing pottery; I used this as inspiration to capture the occupational activity of cooking. In this photograph, I wanted the hand fully focused, whilst dropping some of the information from the background.

16.  What to carry on with?

Having done some test shots of Sander inspired hands and portraits I went back and      looked at the images and felt that I wanted to continue exploring the language of hands. I enjoyed this approach more.

17.  First hand shot- what to take away from it and improve on…

From the help of the feedback session, I planned to improve the photographs of hand studies by trying out colour instead of fully adopting Sanders black and white style, I also need to consider how Sander put emphasis on his hands, and he does this by putting them near centred in the photograph, so I also tried to do this. I also was directed to include a little more context in each image, so I have tried to do this also.

18.  Leonardo Da Vinci Hands

I recently came across these drawings of Da Vinci’s. Even though they are drawings and not photographs they undertake the same study and show importance of hands. Da Vinci undertook many studies of the body so this was very typical of his work. The work is also much earlier than Sanders showing the importance of hand studies still existed through to Sanders era. They evoke a feeling of precision from the actions and positions he captures through drawing.  

19.  Hand on dog

This was a trial I did after the feedback session, in order to try out the suggestions. I tried to get more context included, I wanted to try and capture comfort again.

20.  Xbox hand study

This was another trial I did; I just wanted to capture what my family were doing in these test shots, trying again to take on board advice from the feedback. In this photograph I like the way the natural light from a nearby window highlights part of the arm and hand because of the dark surroundings. In doing these test shots I realised I needed to just concentrate on one diverse activity. I then went back to the most successful photograph so far, the hand on the frying pan and chose to concentrate on the activity of cooking, as this activity seemed to signify domestic life and hobby which is essential in life. This activity also includes a lot of opportunities to capture different hand actions/ positions.

21.  Final chosen images (Hand over bowl)

During this module I did around three photo shoots on the activity, cooking. The following three images were the most successful I took. I have chosen the following three photographs because of the following:-

·         The hands are near centred so the viewer automatically directs their eyes to the state of the hands.

·         The lighting which I used from a nearby window helps to draw focus to the hands in each.

·         The hands in each photograph are fully focused, I have also adopted Sanders slightly dropped out background approach which he adopts in his portraiture work to add some context but it doesn’t take away the attention from each hand.

I have chosen this photograph because of the hands delicacy over the bowl. The hand is at the very front of the composition, whilst there is some context but it doesn’t distract. The colours are quite powerful also, but again this element doesn’t distract, which it can sometimes do. I have slightly altered the levels and brightness of this image.

22.  Final chosen images (Hand on spoon)

In this photograph the hand comes down from the centre top of the composition, therefore dominating our gaze. The lighting helps to illuminate the bowl and the hand only, the background is rather dark, helping again to pull attention to my main subject, the hand.

23.  Hand chosen images (Hand over measuring bowl)

This photograph has the most context out of the three. The lighting again helps to pull out the hand from the rest of the image. The hand is right in the centre. The surrounding objects are noticeable but don’t distract the viewer from the hand.