Steidl Spring/Summer 2013 Catalog

Steidl Spring/Summer 2013 catalog

Gerhard Steidl's masterpiece is his books.  He's a publisher out of Germany and he's been making books since 1972.  When you buy a Steidl publication, you are getting excellence.  The majority of the books are photography.   He is basically Robert Frank's publisher as well as Joseph Beuys.  He's also a bit of a rebel in the publishing world.  For instance, as book catalogs are becoming less and less presence in the 'real' world, he goes out of his way to make his catalog into a hardcover coffee-table sized book.   Business wise it must drive his financial people to go on the side of the window ledge... but he never ever compromises with the aesthetics of the book or the photographer's vision.

Bailey's East Side

David Bailey is pretty much the ultimate London image maker of the 1960's.  He has done wonderful work up to this day, but for a lot of people, he was the one who captured the essence of swinging London.  Here he goes back to his roots and captures the mood of East London, via the 60's but as well as recently as 2010.  This promises to be a very personal look into the neighborhood that very much made David Bailey.  I am very much looking forward to this book!

Ed Ruscha Los Angeles Apartments

One of the great figures in contemporary art, Ed Ruscha pretty much understands the visual culture of Los Angeles.   For an upcoming show at the Kunstmuseum Basel, Ruscha is doing an exhibit focusing on iconic L.A. apartments based on his photographs of them, but then made into drawings.  The book works on many levels.  On one level, it shows the passage from idea to photograph to drawing.  But one also gets the finished artworks as well.   Ruscha is a highly textured visual genius.  His work is smart, but also conveys to a large viewership, I think due that he knows an iconic image when he sees one.  And he knows how to comment on that aspect of a building, sign, etc.  I think this book is going to be a classic.

Paris Photo by David Lynch

David Lynch goes over the collection at Paris Photo and chooses images that appeals to him.  Here he admires works, but it is also filtered through the legendary Lynch motif, of finding the strange in the normal, and the normal in the strange.  A highly aesthetic point-of-view, anything Lynch gets turned-on by, is of great interest to us fans.  Without a doubt, great interest for the lover of photography and how an individual (Lynch) looks at that image.

... And there is a lot more.  Check out Steidl's website:  http://www.steidlville.com/

But more important try to locate this catalog. Its unusual and it is really the 'word' for contemporary photography/art as well the issues that field brings up to the world.