August Sander’s Life Studies

Alex Halberstadt | MoMA Magazine | 23rd October 2019

Sander embarked on a 40 year photography project inspired by the daft theory that facial features predict character. His portraits of thousands of everyday Germans didn’t prove the theory. They do reveal Sander was an immensely insightful portraitist whose images “provoke feeling” and “humanize history”. They have profoundly influenced 20^th century photography. Images are here and background video here.