Walter Sanders

Sanders studied economics in Germany and bought his first camera to take photos of his baby daughter, one of which Agfa used for a display. It was an experience which encouraged him to take up photography as a profession; with the support of editor Hans Reuter, he worked for German picture magazines.^[1]

During the 1930s the Nazi SS began to hound Sanders for "non-Aryan" activities, and as a result, with the assistance of his friend Alfred Seiler he emigrated to the United States in May 1937.^[2][3] There he joined the Black Star agency,^[4] producing work that was first published in Life in 1938. During the war years he and other immigrant photographers Fritz Goro, Andreas Feininger, and Herbert Gehr had their cameras confiscated for a few weeks after Pearl Harbor, but resumed work soon afterwards.^[5]

Sanders went on to join Life magazine's staff in 1944,^[6] producing several cover images for the magazine, including; 'New York': an American flag waving over a view of the downtown Manhattan skyline and waterfront, April 14, 1941; 'Short Coat': Betty Jane Hess wearing a fashionable short coat over her bathing suit on the Rye Beach boardwalk in Rye, New York, July 20, 1942; ‘Kid’s Uniforms': a boy and girl, each dressed in a child sized version of a military uniform, January 11, 1943 ; 'Charles Beard and "The Republic"', January 17, 1944; 'Ella Raines', February 28, 1944;^[7] 'Ballet Swimmer, Belita', August 27, 1945;^[8] 'Americans Maybelle Davis and Jim Cash in traditional alpine fashions, Postwar Germany', July 21, 1947; 'Famous Salzburg Marionettes', December 29, 1952; "K. of C. Honor Guard at Order's Birthplace" May 27, 1957;

In February 1946 he was sent on an assignment in Paris then travelled on to Germany where he was born, in Berlin. He first covered the U.S. Constabulary troop in Western Germany, for which he took his pictures of the Bayreuth parade ground from a light plane and again from the top of a fire truck extension ladder.^[9] in July 1946, he filed a story on American servicemen in Germany, capturing one with his wife enjoying a private moment in the park with Kronberg Castle silhouetted in the background. American students In Heidelberg whom he photographed in June 1947, and local reactions to them, were another of his subjects. He found the city changed radically and produced several stories from his trip;^[10] 'The Road Back to Berlin', revealing the destruction of war wrought upon the city and his own home,^[3] and 'Renaissance Man', the first of the Western Culture series, Mar. 3, 1947; 'Pre-Election Report on Italy' published April 12, 1948; and 'Report on the Occupation' for the February 10, 1947 issue of Life.^[11] He also photographed a crowd of Berliners watching, from ruins at edge of Tempelhof Field, a Douglas C-47 plane bringing food to the blockaded city.^[12]

Sanders also photographed for Vogue magazine, including a 1941 story on the New Canaan Mounted Troopers started by Margaret Cabell Self in Connecticut; and a portrait of Catherine Littlefield, choreographer and director of the dances for Al Jolson's musical Hold Onto Your Hats (1940). For House and Garden he photographed Ludwig Bemelmans at Gramercy Park (1942).