Photography Exhibition: Florida Museum of Photographic Arts - August Sander, The Twentieth-Century Man

The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts holds some of the best photographic exhibitions in the southern United States. Their current exhibition, August Sander, The Twentieth-Century Man looks like an amazing exhibition of Mr. Sander’s work. While I haven’t seen it yet, having seen his photographic work at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, I’m certain this exhibition at the FMPA will be an exciting example of this 20th Century photographer.

The exhibition runs through March 13, 2010

Few people have seen their world convulsed around them more than August Sander.  Luckily for us, he grabbed his camera and recorded the radical social, political, artistic and economic turmoil that churned around him.  Born in 1876 in Germany, the son of a mining carpenter, he witnessed crowned heads fall, throwing their empires into confusion (Austria-Hungary, Russia).  He saw the rapid industrialization of Europe that sent rural people into the cities and fractured centuries-old social norms.  He lived while national boundaries were chopped up after World War I.  He was caught in the middle of both World Wars, and he lost a son to Hitler’s political machine.

Amid this storm, Sander clung to photography.  Unlike earlier photographers who made sentimental photos that mimicked paintings, Sander embraced a 1920s art movement, called “The New Objectivity,” that called for the need to document the new twentieth century with scientific precision.

I hope to be in Florida next month and will definitely take in this exhibition in Tampa. If you’re in the area, I suggest you do too.

As I travel, I love seeing the work of other photographers as I hope you do. If you know of a new photographic exhibition which you think the Blog should publicize, please contact me.