Carsten Sander

In the course of his long career, Carsten Sander has captured Germany's biggest stars with his camera. For his current project, however, the Berlin-based photographer not only portrays politicians and celebrities (such as Egon Bahr, Iris Berben, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Markus Lanz and Claudia Roth, to name but a few), but also includes portraits of the country's 'ordinary' people – the homeless, students, housewives.

What makes the series so extraordinary is that nothing in the photographs distinguishes one social demographic from another. Through the absence of artificial poses, each portrait focuses on the essence of the person – thereby capturing the essence of the country.



Sander's project is a visual illustration of the fact that a country is the sum of its people. It took four years for the photographer to 'collect' these portraits, capturing almost 1,000 faces to this day. But his artistic journey does not end there – in fact, it is only just beginning. The exhibition at the Willy-Brandt-Haus in Berlin presents an intitial portion of the intended large-format exhibition.

The accompanying exhibition catalogue has won the German Design Award 2015.

For further information visit Willy-Brandt-Haus (German)