LIFE
FORCE
The magazine of the photo-essay
June 2017 back issue
Portraying a Nation
Germany 1919 -1933
by August Sander
“A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!”
Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
Exhibition at Tate Liverpool
23 June – 15 October 2017
Tate Liverpool presents the faces of Germany between the two World Wars seen through the eyes of painter Otto Dix
(1891–1969) and photographer August Sander (1876–1964). Portraying a Nation: Germany 1919–1933 brings together
two artists whose works document the glamour and misery of the Weimar Republic, a time of radical extremes and
political and economic upheaval.
Sander’s photographs observe a cross-section of society. He commenced his major photographic project People of the
Twentieth Century in 1910, an ambitious task that occupied him until the 1950s. The project resulted in more than 600
images in which people were categorised into what he described as ‘types’, including artists, musicians, circus workers,
farmers and, in the late 1930s, images of Nazi officers.
August Sander, Artists' Party c.1930, printed 1990.
August Sander, Aviator 1920, printed 1990.
August Sander, Beggar 1926, printed 1990.
August Sander, Circus Workers 1926-32, printed 1990.
August Sander, Disabled ex-serviceman c.1928, printed 1990.
August Sander, Explosion Victim c.1930, printed 1990.
August Sander, Farmer's Child 1919, printed 1990.
August Sander, National Socialist, Head of Department of Culture
c.1938, printed 1990.
August Sander, Nun 1921, printed 1990.
August Sander, Secretary at West German Radio in Cologne
1931, printed 1992.
August Sander, The Painter Otto Dix and his Wife Martha 1925-6, printed 1991.
August Sander, SS Captain 1937, printed 1990.
August Sander, Turkish Mousetrap Salesman 1924-30, printed
1990.
August Sander, Working-class Mother 1927, printed 1990.
August Sander, Young Teacher c.1928, printed 1990.
August Sander, Police Officer 1925, printed 1990.
