Piano Player (Max Van de Sandt) 1925, Agust Sander

Sander is best known for his series "People of the Twentieth Century," which consists of 600 pictures he took of people from his native Westerwald, located near Cologne. His first book "Face of our Time" published in 1929 contained a selection of 60 pictures from this series. During the Nazi era in 1936 this book was seized. The Nazis banned Sander's portraits because some of his subjects did not adhere to the ideal Aryan type. During the war years Sander turned his attention to nature and architecture. At that time he  moved to a rural area which allowed him to save most of his negatives although his studio was destroyed by a bombing raid in 1944. The exhibition at HCB provides an overview of both Sander's portraits and less well-known nature shots.

International recognition finally came to Sander five years after his death with an exhibition in 1969 at the New York Museum of Modern Art. Commenting on his portraits Sander's once said "We can tell from appearance the work someone does or does not do; we can read in his face whether he is happy or troubled..." With Sander's portraits one has the opportunity to "read" about a time and culture that is now long vanished.

August Sander "Voir,Observer et Penser," at the Fondation Henri Cartier Bresson, 2, impasse Lebouis, 75014 Paris, until Dec. 20.