Marlene Wynn - Weekly Artist Post #3

August Sander's People of the 20th Century

1. Artist Technical Choices
1.  August tends to have a central focus on his photos, and they are all of people.  Though the title of the site is "the people of the 20th century", many of the people shown are actually children (3 of the 4 photos above verify this).  He doesn't seem to use a lot of the background (except in the one with the woman) to make an impact, instead relying on the people themselves to make the impact for him.
2.  Artist Conceptual / Thematic Intents
1. The majority of the photos are very serious in nature and show quite a lot of emotion.  The main theme I noticed was a weary sadness, even in the children.
3. My Response to Stanley's Intents
1. The two photos that strike me the most are the one of the woman holding the toddler and the four boys.  The woman looks exhausted and dirt poor.  Her clothing - and the clothes hanging behind her - seem threadbare.  In the photo of the boys, I think August is trying to make them appear as adults, even down to the cigarettes they are each holding.  But some unknown thing just makes me want to look at it.  Such a sad, strange picture.  
2. BTW...I threw in the baby picture just cause I thought it was neat. :-)