After World War I, Sander undertook the monumental project of portraying all types and classes of German citizens, but his book, The Face of Our Time, could not be published under the Nazi regime. This photograph was intended as a representative image of the modern high school student. If it recalls the preening nonchalance of any senior in his yearbook portrait, that is testimony to Sander's remarkable ability to extract the typical from the specific.
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Inscription: Inscribed and signed in pencil on mount, recto LR [below image]: "Aug. Sander / Cöln 1926"; blindstamp on print, recto LL: "AUG. SANDER // KöLN // LINDENTHAL"; printed on label affixed to mount, verso UL: "AUG. SANDER // LICHTBILDNER // CöLN - LINDENTHAL // DüRENERSTR. 201";
Gunther Sander (artist's son); Roberta Kimmel-Cohn (Kimmel/Cohn Photography Arts, NYC; Judy and Paul Corlett, NYC, 1977; Lee Marks Fine Art, NYC, 1982; John C. Waddell, December 9, 1982
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 23–December 31, 1989.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 28–April 22, 1990.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 10–July 15, 1990.
High Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 5–April 28, 1991.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 8–August 4, 1991.
IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia. "The New Vision, IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia," January 20, 1995–March 26, 1995.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Portraits: A Century of Photographs," September 10, 2002–January 13, 2003.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "People of the 20th Century. August Sander's Photographic Portrait of Germany," May 25–September 19, 2004.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "On Photography: A Tribute to Susan Sontag," June 6–September 4, 2006.
Sander, August. August Sander, Citizens of the Twentieth Century: Portrait Photographs, 1892–1952, edited by Günther Sander. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1986. p. 380.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Photography between the Wars: Selections from the Ford Motor Company Collection." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (Spring 1988). p. 29.
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