Berlin Coal Carrier is a black and white photograph taken by August Sander in 1929. This picture was included in his book Face of Our Time (1931) and was part of his project People of the Twentieth Century, where he pictured several people and professions of Germany. [1]
The photograph depicts a coal carrier from Berlin, emerging from the dark cellar of a building into the sunlight. The man of middle age and with a moustache, is of humble social condition, he wears a hat and is dressed poorly, with dirty and worn pants. He takes a step upward the door, while he carries on his left shoulder a wicker basket, presumably with coal. His appearance and profession put him at the lower ranks of the working class of the Weimar Republic. The J. Paul Getty Museum website states: "His place, Sander seems to suggest, is deep inside the bowels of German society — like the dark basement from which he emerges." [2]
There are prints of this photograph at the August Sander Archive, in Cologne, the Museum of Modern Art, in New York, and the J. Paul Getty Museum, in Los Angeles. [3] [4]
Walker Evans was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' work from the FSA period uses the large format, 8×10-inch (200×250 mm) view camera. He said that his goal as a photographer was to make pictures that are "literate, authoritative, transcendent".
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August Sander was a German portrait and documentary photographer. His first book Face of our Time was published in 1929. Sander has been described as "the most important German portrait photographer of the early twentieth century". Sander's work includes landscape, nature, architecture, and street photography, but he is best known for his portraits, as exemplified by his series People of the 20th Century. In this series, he aims to show a cross-section of society during the Weimar Republic.
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The August Sander Archive comprises the estate of the German photographer August Sander and is part of the collection of Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur, in Cologne. The photographic work has been kept there since 1993 with a large number of original photographs, negatives and documents.
The White Fence, also known as The White Fence, Port Kent, New York, is a black and white photograph taken by American photographer Paul Strand, in 1916. The picture was published in the magazine Camera Work, in June 1917, whose editor was Alfred Stieglitz, where it was highly praised by him, specially for its "abstract qualities". It would be later published as part of Paul Strand: Portfolio Three (1976-1977).
The Pastry Cook, also known as The Pastry Chef, is a black and white photograph taken by German photographer August Sander, in 1928. It was included in his photography book Face of Our Time, published in 1929, and was part of his project People of the 20th Century. The current photograph became one of the most famous in his depictions of professions and characters of the Weimar Republic.
Two Shells, also known as Shells, is a black and white photograph taken by American photographer Edward Weston, in 1927. It was part of a series containing 26 photographs of sea shells from the same year, including Weston's famous Nautilus.
Working Students is a black and white photograph by German photographer August Sander, taken in 1926. The photograph depicts a group of four students, who also worked for a living, from the Weimar Republic. It was included in his photography landmark book Antlitz der Zeit (1929), and became one of the most famous pictures that Sander took back then.