Bricklayer, 1928

He emerges from darkness, his head framed by the bricks he shoulders, his face illuminated by a dramatic and ennobling light. August Sander made the image for his “People of the Twentieth Century” project, which sought to document the full range of contemporary German society through portraits of its people, including artists, farmers, skilled tradesmen, politicians, soldiers, and students. Beginning about 1910, he traveled widely throughout the country and produced more than six hundred photographs of its citizens. Organized by profession and occupation, this monumental compendium is unparalleled in its thoroughness. A selection of the portraits from this series was published as a book, Face of Our Time, in 1929. It was seized by the Nazis in 1936, and the plates were destroyed because many of its subjects did not adhere to the ideal Aryan type.