'People of the 20th Century'

The other day, writing about August Sander, I said, "I never did buy, and have not seen, the 7-volume set. I've heard a few things about it, both good and a little more reserved than that, but I'm too cheap to drop that much money just to find out for myself."

Very shortly thereafter, Yellowstone Traders came on board with an ad for their super-soft buffalo-hair (warmer than sheep's wool) photographer's gloves (you can get them full-finger, fingerless, or one of each—the fingerless one for your shooting hand).

And a little money came over the transom. I decided to interpret that as a sign from God.

So I bought the 7-volume set. For, naturally, the longtime price of $195.

Merely a matter of hours after that, we got a comment from a reader called dovydas that the 7-volume set only cost $122.85. What? I looked, and sure enough. This was...of interest. Since I had just paid $72.15 more than that...or 37% more, as Amazon helpfully calculates for me on the sales page.

So the next morning I called Amazon. After some discussion, the nice lady decided to make a "one-time exception" for me, and credit me back the $72.15.

Whew. (You go, God.)

The "7-volume set" is of course August Sander: People of the 20th Century by Susanne Lange, Director of the Photography Collection/SK Cultural Foundation, in Cologne, Germany, with essays by Gabriele Conrath-Scholl, a scholar on the staff of the Foundation, and made with the cooperation of Gerd Sander, the photographer's grandson and an expert on his grandfather's work. First published in Germany by Schirmer/Mosel, and in the U.S.A. by Abrams, to mark the 125th anniversary of Sander's birth. It's the most complete set of Sander's work extant, with 1400 pages overall and more than 150 never-before-published images.

It just arrived. 

(Once again with a camera included for scale.)

I am pleased to report that it is magnificent. If you think about it, Sander's great document of the Weimar years is for most of us a myth—that is, we see a few, or a few dozen, or (in the case of single-volume books) maybe a hundred examples, and we're told of the existence of the project as a whole, but we never really get to see more evidence of its existence. There are lots of things here I've never seen before. This is a feast.

The reproduction quality is very, very good—not exact duplicates of original prints by any means, but plenty good enough to allow you to concentrate on the pictures. The paper is of very high quality. The size of the pictures is perfect—just one photograph per spread, with the title on the facing page. Exceptionally clean. The text is in German, English, and French. The typography and design are elegant, refined and restrained.

Rather touchingly (because nobody's going to remove the dust covers), the sleek cloth bindings are all different colors.

(Okay, and you wonder where Moe's hair stylist got his inspiration.)

This is the sort of thing that warms the cockles of my heart, although I'm not sure that the medical establishment would agree that my heart has cockles. It is very important to the history of photography in the 20th century, very good as bookcraft, and very cheap: if I get my calculator out, the new price comes to $17.55 per volume. I've paid more than $122.85 for one book in the past. Just not often.

For the sake of balance, I'll mention that the slipcase box is not of very high quality. The sort of thing they probably intend for you to throw away, but of course you can't unless you want to cripple the set's resale value, since book collectors are such sticklers for original condition.

At any rate, a strong, nay urgent, buy recommendation, if you have any interest in this work, or think you might have in the future. I realize that for most people's libraries, a one-volume greatest hits will be more appropriate*. And I can see why such a set as this would sell slowly—'tis indeed a lot of Sander, and the cost establishes (or established) a highish bar, even for mavens such as myself. Yet this won't be around forever, and it's the sort of thing that will become unobtanium one day (like the two-volume hardcover set of Kinsey, Photographer that I didn't buy when I could and now will never get to own). It's worth having in any solid library of photography books, and it will always be worth having in any solid library of photography books. The as-of-Thursday price makes it a fire sale—if not a trample-the-security-guards-at-the-door kind of sale—for those interested. (The price is €152 at Amazon Germany and £101 in the U.K. )

Right away, takes its place at the very heart of my own little library. I'm sure I will spend many contented hours with it. Myth no more.

Mike

*If that's you, I recommend Schirmer/Mosel's August Sander: Face [of] Our Time (in Deutsch, Antlitz der Zeit) from Schirmer's Visual Library, a near pocket-sized recreation of the book with which Sander introduced his project to the world. Small, but it's only $9.95, and it's a nice little volume and a nice taste of the work.

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Original contents copyright 2010 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Comments

[dsr]

I've had this set since it was first released and it is indeed magnificent! I'm actually surprised that it is still available, let alone at a discount! And I'm definitely skeptical that the cardboard sleeve it comes wrapped in should be called a "slipcase"

[skinnyvoice]

Yay, tis good to have my opinion of the set confirmed. I've had it for a while and rate it highly. Surprised that it is available at a discount though!

[Doug Brewer]

what a beautiful camera.

oh, and the books like nice, too.

[Michael]

I've followed your example, and found it in the UK for 98 GB Pounds. That is 98 GB Pounds more than I had planned to spend at the end of this long financial month with short finances. I've weighed whether it is your influence, or my weakness, and have decided it is your fault. So thanks a lot: a good buy, and someone to blame, all in one package.

[Rob Atkins]

I bought stock in amazon soon after reading that Mike had delivery of his new bookcase.

[Paul]

The Wise Silence! You once mentioned what a profound spiritual experience you discovered with this book, been always watching out to see if I can find a copy though it has always been above my personal price limit. Great pity because I´m always attracted to the spiritual side in life and I feel I´m to missing out on something very profound!

[Mark Morris]

The Weimar era is extraordinarily fascinating. The party before the storm, so to speak. I feel sorry for all those people who were just trying to live their own lives and were destroyed by the Nazis.

The slipcase looks like brown cardboard. Is it acid free?

Those old slr's are really beautiful.

[Roger Bradbury]

Very nice too, and if I could spare a ton (£100) I'd have 'em. Very tempting.

Talking of temptation, now you've got seventy two smackeroos you didn't expect to have. You gonna buy another book or two? : )

What is that gizmo on top of the Pentax? It looks like a lightmeter, but why would you need one? It also looks like the camera was last used with B & W film.

[Mike Johnston]

Roger,
The camera is actually a user and in extremely fine fettle. It was in good cosmetic condition when I bought it and it's had a complete rebuild from the mirrorbox out. The stopdown meter actually works, but I prefer the Voigt VCII. The lens is a Super-Multi-Coated Takumar.

Mike

[misha]

I want to talk about the Spotmatic. That was my first real camera, imported by Honeywell. I had the 50/1.8. I bought it in 1968 for $200. My mother gave me the sales tax, after I saved that amount from a paper route.

My step-father lived through the Depression, and when I asked for it, he went ballistic. I mean, you could buy a Kodak for $14.95. To make matters worse, my mother's brother went to Japan, and bought my cousin a Minolta SRT101 and 50/1.4 as a gift. I went nuts - he just handed it to her, after I was berated.

[jkao]

Interesting. Amazon *used* to have a 30-day price drop guarantee, which is why I bought my last camera from them (and got a nice $100 refund 30 days later). Guess I won't be doing that again...

[robert e]

Is that a yellow filter on the Takumar? Makes me want to shoot black and white.

[David Salmanowitz]

Mike-Just saw Amazon now has the books back to $122.85, glad you put them in line. :-) When I read the former price you stated I thought "Gee, I paid 120 something dollars for that set". Great set, great photographer. BTW, Amazon prices have really seemed to have gone haywire the last week. In my items to buy later section some books have jumped in price 40 or 50 percent or more, not just the usual few dollars. Then a few days after back down in price to what is was or very close.

[paul logins]

I've ordered the 7 volume set too.
However I feel a little cheated.
The 1400 pages sounded good until
I found out,judging from your article,
that half the pages are in all effect
blank!

[Roger Bradbury]

Mike

A lovely camera. Glad to hear that it's in such good nick.

I've got a copy somewhere of the first photo magazine I ever had, an early 70s copy of the English Photo Technique. It's just full of adverts for the Spotmatic and its contemporaries. Every time I see the black version of the camera I think of those ads.

Roger

[Adam Isler]

Oy! Mike you're killin' me here. So I had to spend too much money to get this! But it was cheaper even than the paperback edition Amazon listed.

[Dennis Ng]

Just drop more than that for the Jim Marshall books you mentioned via your links. Cannot do that any more, even though I looked at those pictures in the net and indeed quite a number of it I have seen somewhere somehow. I think I have to sell my M8 to finance this book recommendations.

If you cannot take good picture, buy some!

[Scott]

In the issue of Poetry I received today, Adam Kirsch has three poems written as responses to Sander photographs. The photos appear side by side their respective poems and a brief interview follows.

They are nice reading if your interest runs that way.

[scott kirkpatrick]

I bought my set 3-4 years ago, at a price that sounds like the present "discount" price, through either Amazon or B&N. The pictures cover more than just the Weimar years, since they stretch from the late 1890s to just after WW II. I reviewed parts with a German friend whose father had been a country schoolteacher before the war, and sure enough, we found a "country schoolteacher" who captured that past perfectly.

scott

[Robert Burnham]

...and you wonder where Moe's hair stylist got his inspiration.

Looks a good bit like Bill Gates too. (And there's some as thinks Windows isn't exactly evidence to the contrary either....)

[Marc]

For people coming to Cologne (Germany): The Photographische Sammlung (Photography Collection/SK Cultural Foundation), which is displaying works from Bernd und Hilla Becher at the moment, has a few of the sets left for the discounted price of 128 EUR, as does the Buchhandlung Walter Koenig. I had a chat with the owner last week and he told me that it is officially out of print at the publisher now and once the remaining discounted ones are gone it will be available here only for the official price of 200+ EUR, if at all.

He also expressed a similar sentiment as you did: This one is probably not coming back.

I just bought mine and have not spent any real time with it, but my first impressions are great.

Marc

[Ruud]

I had heard of Sander and seen some of his portraits on TV a long time ago. I had seen one or two books with some of the portraits, but the quality and size were not really good enough for the price. Buying the whole set at the time was too expensive. When I read your post I realised the price must have come down a lot, used the amazon link that you provided and the set arrived today. I am looking forward to dipping into this for a long time to come, thanks for the tip!

BTW When I got the different volumes out of the box I was alarmed by the sound of paper being torn. Fortunately it was just a result of the covers, having been pressed together, coming apart, no harm done.