Florian Ebner and Andreas Langfeld: Postures

Testing August Sander’s theory of career ＂types＂ at his retrospective exhibition 100 years later

Do people today still define themselves by their profession, as August Sander assumed in the 1920s for his project People of the Twentieth Century? After the major August Sander exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in the summer of 2022, it seemed a worthwhile undertaking to apply the categories and filters of the Cologne photographer to the great Parisian institution itself 100 years later. Not only are there a multitude of professions to be found among the visitors, but the staff itself is a representative social sample: a miniature society within the larger urban milieu. Editor Florian Ebner (born 1970) and photographer Andreas Langfeld (born 1984) applied Sander’s methodology to create an update of his original atlas. The result is a view of society that does not attempt to be an illustrative equivalent; rather, the differences and contradictions it reveals create an apt portrait of the 2020s.