August Sander
1930
[Blind man, congenitally afflicted (Blinder, erblich belastet)]

Gelatin silver print
23 × 17.5 cm (9 1/16 × 6 7/8 in.)
 
J. Paul Getty Museum
© J. Paul Getty Trust, Object Number: 84.XM.126.175
 
(Curatorial description, 15 December 2021)
August Sander made this enlarged portrait of a young man from his negative for Inmates of a Home for the Blind. He deeply believed that the physiognomy of an individual revealed their character. Although this man's downcast eyes fail to make contact with the camera, the portrait's close-up view implies an almost intimate sense of connection between the subject and viewer. The clarity of Sander's original negative was so superior that this portrait retains fine details such as the man's watery eyes.
 
Sander intended this portrait to be part of his comprehensive survey, "People of the Twentieth Century," which illustrated German archetypes such as tradespeople, farmers, and politicians. In his hierarchy of types, the disabled, ill, and insane were literally referred to as "The Last People."
 
LL/116444