Beginning in the early 1920s, August Sander labored at an
epic project titled People of the
Twentieth Century—a collective portrait of German citizenry covering all
classes and professions from aristocrats to beggars, artists to military men,
farmers to lawyers, and bakers to bankers. Although Sander’s portrait style may
have seemed artless at the time, and might still seem straightforward at first
glance, his pictures were carefully considered, both unflinchingly true to life
and sympathetic. With a curving tilt to his stance, one arm akimbo, and top hat
slightly cocked, this black-clad farmer on his way to a funeral is sharply
silhouetted against softly focused countryside behind him.

The formal simplicity of such pictures and Sander’s
typological approach to his project were highly influential on subsequent
generations of photographers.