Most of us do not know what our great grandparents did. One of the curses of legacy is to know, but to know only in part. As with all stories that have passed through generations and have been told by many different people, the truth is an assumption that lies somewhere in the middle of the collective.
The history of the Sander family is one of these stories. I am in the 4th generation of people from the Sander Family who work/have worked with a body of photographs. An oevre that has helped to form the modern vocabulary of portraits. The power of August Sanders work is well described in a video by Hauser&Wirth here. But that has little to do with the legacy I am dealing with.
There is an old saying that history is written by the winners of the wars. That is a dark future to look forward to as it requires a looser as well. In my families case it seems like there are a great many people who have actively played a role in their own placement on the losing side, and for the most part because they have felt that they are right. But truth will set us free, no? Maybe, maybe not…
There is another saying about war that I think describes this sort of situation much more accurately.
In War there are no winners, just survivors.
But the history books need to be set right, and it seems it is my job to do so. So I start on this journey to uncover the real story that has led to so much infighting. In the knowledge that when the story has been told in full all will understand what happened and why.
