I think it is noteworthy how the photographic language of August Sander has found a wealth of proponents on the internet, who use derivations of it to document and promote the style they find on the street. The most prominent of these is Scott Schuman, known to followers and to Time magazine, who have at some point selected him as one of their ‘top 100 design influencers’ and given him a strapline, as The Sartorialist. The Sartorialist namechecks Sander and draws a line from his ‘quiet, distant backgrounds’ and subjects who ‘fill the space they are in with their strong personas’ to Sander’s. Sander’s aim, though, was ‘to see things as they are and not as they should or could be’. The Sartorialist might well have been listening to the Kennedys when they paraphrased ‘Back To Methuselah’; ‘Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say why not?’ Such is his influence and indeed his vision; The Sartorialist produces a highly selective view of the street and even fodder for the satirists in ‘Oh Snap!’ a ‘step-by-step guide to getting shot by The Sartorialist’. Sander’s own selection was borne of personal meetings and is considered unrepresentative in a demographic sense, despite his professed intention, but is wider. Thus the language is the same but the message is, whisper it, changed.

Reading:

MoMA The Collection August Sander. (German, 1876-1964)
http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=5145

FT.com - Arts - Visual Arts - August Sander- Claude Cahun, Edinburgh
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/ad4e6116-54a6-11e0-b1ed-00144feab49a.html#axzz1I6wE2rKi

The Sartorialist The Influencers - August Sander & Disfarmer
http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/2009/09/blog-post.html

Oh Snap! Our Step-By-Step Guide To Getting Shot By The Sartorialist
http://www.refinery29.com/get-shot-by-sartorialist