Book Details + Condition: Harry N. Abrams, Inc (New York). First Edition, 2002. Complete 7-volume set published to celebrate the 125th anniversary of photographer August Sander's birth. Includes text in English, French and German, with full-page black-and-white photographic plates. All seven volumes remain in excellent condition, in their original dust jackets and slipcase. Books do not appear to have been read, let alone opened. Minor shelf wear to slipcase, which shows some old staining / darkening, chips, and retains the original price on the bottom. The set includes:
- The Farmer
- The Skilled Tradesman
- The Woman
- Classes and Professions
- The Artists
- The City
- The Last People
A landmark in the history of modern art, People of the 20th Century presents the fullest expression of the German photographer August Sander’s lifelong work: a monumental endeavor to amass an archive of twentieth-century humanity through a cross section of German culture. Sander photographed subjects from all walks of life, capturing bankers and boxers, soldiers and circus performers, farmers and families, to create a catalog of the German people, arranged by their profession, gender, and social status. First imagined in the 1920s, he pursued the project for more than fifty years during a politically charged and rapidly changing time, fraught by two world wars and the devastating repercussions of Nazism. Sander never finished the seven-volume, forty-nine portfolio magnum opus, continually refining and shaping it to convey an understanding of the world in which he lived. The photographs, remarkable for their unflinching realism and deft analysis of character, provide a powerful social mirror of Germany between the wars and form one of the most influential achievements of the twentieth century. [Aperture]
