ABSTRACT
The following are two of the six letters from August Sander to Edward Steichen, written between 20 March 1954 and 3 July 1956, that are in the archives of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (Museum of Modern Art Exhibition Records 569.25. Reproduced with permission from The Museum of Modern Art, NY (MoMA) 2017). Sander and Steichen had met in 1952 when Steichen had toured Europe meeting photographers as a way of inviting submissions for The Family of Man. The existing correspondence begins with Sander informing Steichen that he is sending a portfolio of his images for Steichen’s consideration. Sander was among the most distinguished German photographers of the first half of the twentieth century but the remarkable portraits that made up his monumental People of the Twentieth Century were rejected by the National Socialists, and Sander largely gave up photography and retreated into rural isolation during the early years of World War II. Steichen’s attention to his work, and his admiration for it, came then as an unexpected and welcome recognition. Three of Sander’s photographs were included in The Family of Man.
