Peasant Girls, Westerwald (Bauernmädchen, Westerwald)

A professional portraitist based in Cologne, August Sander (German, 1876–1964) had already amassed numerous photographs of farmers and peasants in the surrounding region when he decided in the early 1920s to expand his record and expressly document all classes, occupations, and lifestyles in the nation. This monumental undertaking, to which Sander gave the name People of the Twentieth Century, eventually grew to include more than 600 portraits (and thousands of poses) that formed a “physiognomical time exposure of German man,” in the photographer’s words. Remarkably consistent in their lighting and poses, and hung or reproduced in pairs in Sander’s lifetime, the portraits invite comparative analysis, suggesting limitless types rather than the quite limited typecasting espoused by Nazism, to which Sander grew increasingly opposed.