Frau Peter Abelen, Cologne, 1926
Gelatin silver print
23 x 16.3 cm (9-1/16x 6-7/16in.)
84.XM.498.9

The enigma of Sander's work-like Atget's-is that his photographs are simul- taneously traditional and modern. He used a tripod-mounted plate camera at a time when handheld cameras were attracting many photographers, and he usually posed his figures in an environment that revealed something about their life, a strategy that he appropriated from painting and professional portraiture. Sander became skilled at causing his subjects to project a sense of expectation and then arresting the precise psychological moment. Dressed in stylish culottes, Frau Peter Abelen stands in a gallery surrounded by her husband's paintings. She has a ciga- rette secured between her teeth, and she is about to light it with the match and striker she is holding. We have a powerful sense of tense psychological reality. The woman is androgynous, and her expression falls somewhere between anticipation and anger. Similarly, we do not know whether Sander is accusing or praising her in his portrayal.
(EDWARD WESTON related to-->> 168)

related: web site -->>
• J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
• Masters of Photography