An exhibition by the Photographische Sammlung/Stiftung Kultur der Sparkasse KölnBonn, untill January 24, 2027
August Sander’s 150th birthday (1876–1964) offers a welcome occasion to pay extensive tribute to his multifaceted body of work, which grew over decades. Since 1992, the August Sander Archive, holding the world’s largest collection of the photographer’s work, has been part of the Photographische Sammlung/Stiftung Kultur der Sparkasse KölnBonn. Nearly all the works in the exhibition come from the collection’s own holdings, which, beyond the famous motifs, offer a wealth of previously little-known images and thematic groups. Alongside portraits from his central cultural and social work People of the 20th Century, the exhibition includes photographs from his early creative period in Linz, Austria, as well as commissioned works from the Westerwald region from various decades. These works deepen our understanding of Sander’s artistic development and his working method, shaped by breadth of subject matter, stylistic precision and craftsmanship.
Cologne holds an important place in the exhibition, as Sander lived and worked there for more than 30 years. In particular, the city’s historic architectural structure and its cultural diversity—whether Rhenish carnival or the group of progressive artists – provided an environment in which he could develop photographically and artistically, find opportunities to earn a living, and provide for his family. The image group „Lichtbildwerkstatt August Sander, Köln-Lindenthal,“ created between 1930 and 1942/43, impressively shows how the family’s living and working environment was arranged. These photographs are being shown in this scope for the first time. A publication (Schirmer/Mosel) accompanying the exhibition will bring this body of work together with six radio lectures that August Sander wrote and delivered on behalf of WDR in 1931. The idea of combining these two projects goes back to plans by the photographer himself, as documented in „Programm für die Fortsetzung meiner Arbeiten“ („Programme for the Continuation of My Work“), a document from 1952 held in the August Sander Archive. In the exhibition space, visitors will be able to listen to all six lectures in a newly recorded version.
August Sander’s high regard for the visual arts is especially evident in his close exchange with the Cologne group of progressive artists. He not only made reproductions of their works; Franz Wilhelm Seiwert and Heinrich Hoerle in particular were stimulating companions on Sander’s photographic path. As can be seen in several images from the „Lichtbildwerkstatt,“ Sander owned various works by his artist friends and integrated them into his living environment.
The featured groups of works Studien, der Mensch (Studies, the Human Being) and Mensch und Maschine (Man and Machine) address aspects that reveal Sander’s far-reaching yet detailed view of human and social concerns. Here, the human hand is a fundamental element: comparable to an individual portrait, it points to different life circumstances and stands, as a working „tool,“ at the beginning of mechanical development.
August Sander also incorporated the fields of landscape and botany into his photographic oeuvre. Born and raised in Herdorf, a rural yet mining-shaped town in the Westerwald, his connection to this region, its natural conditions and economic possibilities, likely had its roots in this environment. Although he settled in Cologne from 1910, he returned there regularly from at least 1912 onward to document the land and its people, and also to build a client base there. The Westerwald would remain an important point of reference for him throughout his life. In 1942/43 he left Cologne because of the bombing raids of the Second World War and moved to the small town of Kuchhausen, where he lived with his wife Anna until his death. Beyond the Westerwald, Sander also photographically documented the Rhine region, the Siebengebirge and the Eifel. What distinguishes his landscape work is his particular attention to the interplay of untouched nature, human settlement and traces of human activity. Just as with the human face, Sander believed the landscape too carries a face into which time inscribes itself—a thought grounded in precise observation.
A biographical peculiarity is August Sander’s only trip abroad, to Sardinia in 1927. The journey, undertaken together with the writer Ludwig Mathar, lasted several weeks. Its purpose was a planned joint book about the island, which was ultimately never realized. Sander was to take on the photographic part, producing more than 300 negatives, many of which he did not actually print until the 1950s. No other professional photographer documented historic Sardinia with such a consistent and wide-ranging body of work as Sander did—a rare visual record of a region that was at the time still barely visited.
The August Sander exhibition is generously supported by the Kunststiftung NRW.
The Rhine and the Siebengebirge in View — August Sander and Gerhard Fleischer: Comparable Locations
Between Yesterday and TodayConcurrent with the exhibition „August Sander – On his 150th Birthday,“ a monitor presentation juxtaposes landscape photographs by August Sander with those by Gerhard Fleischer. The focus is on the Rhine and the Siebengebirge, a region extensively and meticulously documented by Sander.
Photographer and former cameraman Gerhard Fleischer (b. 1952) has repeatedly traveled to the Rhine since 2014 to seek out the views and rock formations photographed by Sander. Fleischer’s aim is to approximate Sander’s perspective and angle of view as closely as possible, which makes it possible to vividly illustrate the changes that have taken place over time. Gerhard Fleischer describes his long-term project, on which he continues to work, as follows:
„The idea arose back when I was studying photography in Cologne, when in 1975 I held in my hands the newly published book August Sander. Rheinlandschaften. Photographien von 1926 bis 1946, from the then-young publishing house Schirmer/Mosel. I asked myself what had changed in my homeland since then, and what had remained constant. That can be shown vividly through photography. So I recreated August Sander’s motifs as closely as possible, taking into account the seasonal light conditions. This makes it very clear what developments have taken place since then—but also how little some motifs have changed, despite the great span of time that lies between the images.“An accompanying edition will be published and can be purchased at the shop of the Photographische Sammlung/Stiftung Kultur.
The exhibition „August Sander – On his 150th Birthday“ takes place as part of the anniversary programme 50 Years of the Stiftung Kultur der Sparkasse KölnBonn, 1976–2026.
The August Sander Archive, acquired in 1992, forms the cornerstone of the Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur. It is the world\\\’s largest collection of original works by the photographer (1876-1964). With a view to Sander\\\’s factual and concept-oriented photography, the collection expanded to include other works by other historically important and contemporary artists that were similar to his approach. The focus is also on the photographs by Bernd and Hilla Becher, Karl Blossfeldt, Jim Dine and many more. Regular exhibitions are programmatically based on the collection. The institution presents the August Sander Award every two years for photographers up to the age of 40.
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Stiftung Kultur der Sparkasse KölnBonn
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Bildquelle: © Die Photogr.Slg/Stiftung Kultur – VG Billd-Kunst