This portfolio of twelve portraits is one of Sander’s signature works, acting a prelude to his “People of the 20th Century,”, his decades long project to photograph citizens of his native Germany from all walks of life. In this portfolio, he focuses on images of farmers and their families, assigning them archetypes that he believed represented qualities necessary for a well-balanced society. The portraits are straightforward, shot in the subject’s home or the landscape around it, and were taken with an outdated, large format camera that used glass negatives, requiring a long exposure time. The subject had to sit still for several seconds; this lends a somber, quiet composure to the images.  

Sander was one of the most prominent artists working in Weimar Germany, in the years leading up to World War II. Like many of his contemporaries, Sander’s art depicted the various types of citizens found in a modern, multi-faceted society, leading to the suppression of his work when the Nazi party gained power. Sander’s work was eventually seized, and he was forced to flee into the German countryside. He continued to photograph, however, documenting the effects of war on his community.