LUXEMBOURG.- “The essence of all photography is documentary in
nature”, observed August Sander in one of the talks that he delivered at the
Westdeutscher Rundfunk (West German Broadcasting Institution) in Cologne in
1931. With this he coined a key phrase, which was to shape his view on
photography throughout his career. August Sander gained fame with a photographic
work created during the mid-1920s, entitled Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts
(People of the 20th Century), in which he brought together portraits of people
from different social backgrounds and occupational categories as part of a
self-conceived project that spanned decades.