The work and projects in this book are some of the most fascinating collection of photographs to look at. Looking through feels like trying to understand an individual’s idea of a human encyclopedia.
Using Typology with people is to divide us by culture, race and classification, the list could be endless. It’s to strip people into fragments and details that separate them from each other. In a way it’s a stereotypical way of thinking in its extreme.
Dwarves 1913
The reason I find the book so interesting is not only because of the incredible quality of the photogrphs but the whole idea behind them. There’s an interesting quote that accompanies the images in ‘People of the 20th Century’ where Sanders has written ‘It moves from the people of the soil to the highest point of culture and down to the idiot in the finest gradations’. I have looked over and over these images of ‘the philosipher’, ‘progressive intellect’ and ‘two couples’ that are in this set and I still can't understand how he has justified the interest in each person and the connections he has made. I can only try to understand it by seeing it as the psychology of his time and social understanding.
I find some images hard to look at, as they seem like catching a deer in the headlights. They feel like awkward portraits not only to look at, but also for the subject in the photograph. As if they are being pointed at and alienated behind the lens. Sanders doesn’t seem to treat his subjects as individuals but as a network of people.
Young farmers 1914
(image taken from
http://experimentiv.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/august-sander-dwarfs.jpg)
Even though I may not agree with , or understand the true meaing behind this work, I can appreciate it's culturally significant and an important piece of history. To define and create Groupee’s was seen as important and useful around the 19th century and Sanders work has built a comprehensive map of his own.
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