In 1911, Sander began the first portrait series for his work,  People of the 20th Century  . In the early 1920s, he came into contact with the  Cologne Progressives  , a radical group of artists with ties to the labor movement who, as Wieland Schmied put it, “sought to combine Constructivism and Objectivity, geometry and object, the general and the particular, avant-garde conviction and political commitment, and perhaps came closest to the future orientation of New Objectivity […].” In 1927, Sander traveled through Sardinia with the writer Ludwig Mathar for three months, taking around 500 photographs. A planned travel book, however, was never completed.

The Man of the Earth, Germany, 1910

Young farmers, Germany, 1914

Widower, Germany, 1914

Painter, Germany, 1928

Farmer’s family, Germany, 1913–1914

The woman of the progressive spirit, Germany, 1914

Village school teacher, Germany, 1921

Publisher, Germany, 1928

Mother and daughter. Farmer’s wife and miner’s wife, Germany, 1912

Middle-class child, Germany, 1925

The Philosopher, Germany, 1913

Forester family, Germany, 1925

Country girl, Germany, 1925

Writer and journalist, Germany, 1926

Showman, Germany, 1930

The Butcher’s Apprentice, Germany, 1911-1914

Farm children, Germany, 1913

Art dealer, Germany, 1927

Young farmers, Germany, 1926

Conductor, Germany, 1924-1928

Circus artists, Germany, 1926-1932

Dance teacher, Germany, 1932

Mother and daughter, Germany, 1926

Commercial employee, Germany, 1912

Match seller, Germany, 1927

Cleaning lady, Germany, 1928

Master bricklayer, Germany, 1926-1932

Production engineer, Germany, 1933

Painter, Germany, 1930

Industrialist, Germany, 1920

Traveling masons, Germany, 1927

Bricklayer, Germany, 1928

The Notary, Germany, 1924

Middle-class children, Germany, 1925

Student fraternity student, Germany, 1925

Member of the Hitler Youth, Germany, 1938

National Socialism, Germany, 1935

National Socialism, Germany, 1937–1938

National Socialism, Germany, 1935

Soldier, Germany, 1940