Forever Saul Leiter

Hardly any other contemporary artist has devoted himself to searching for traces left behind by different ways of life in the 19th and 20th centuries as the Canadian Rodney Graham (b. 1949). Since the 1970s, he has been working on a rhizome-like, conceptual oeuvre that has never shied away from new jumps in time or genre. His work combines film, photography, installation, performance, painting, literature, and music. Graham, who, along with artists such as Jeff Wall or Stan Douglas, belongs to the »Vancouver School«, appropriates styles, trends, and discourses from the era of romanticism through to post-modernity, commenting or expanding on them or rethinking them with an understated irony. This book, designed in close co-operation with the artist, accompanies the exhibition at Museum Frieder Burda. It presents Graham’s 36 photo light boxes from 2000 to the present, among them key works like the Newspaper Man. The central focus is on the manifold ways in which Graham has staged himself. He always gives the impression of a melancholy time traveler, a modern-day Buster Keaton, negotiating the trials and tribulations of modern culture in various guises and in doing so, slipping into the role of producer, observer or mediator. English, German edition.

Intimate images of some of the world s most fascinating actresses, by a master of his craft With such credits as the Calvin Klein Eternity campaigns, shooting the first Vogue cover under Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, and helping to catapult the 90s supermodels to mega fortune and fame, Peter Lindbergh has emblazoned his name into the halls of fashion history. The industry quickly became enamored with his almost anti-fashion fashion photography, capturing the spirit of his subjects rather than highlighting impossible ideals. In this book, the influential Lindbergh works to redefine beauty standards with awe-inspiring, never-before-seen images taken at his iconic Pirelli shoot. Beautiful women with beautiful minds are portrayed simply, accessibly, and in breathtaking fashion unapologetic pores, fine lines, freckles, and all. The only photographer granted permission to shoot the calendar more than twice, Lindbergh leverages the marketing tool as an opportunity to communicate the zeitgeist. In lieu of opting for a traditional nudity-focused aesthetic and flawless supermodel lineup, he casts 14 Hollywood actresses (including 11 Oscar winners) instead. The message? True beauty isn t perfect; it s rooted in interest, intelligence, and emotional appeal.

The Theatre of Apparitions is a highly anticipated body of work by one of the most original image-makers of our times, whose remarkable artistic trajectory spans the past 40 years. This book is the culmination of his ongoing study of the connections between photography, drawing, the mind and the body. Created between the years 2004 and 2008, these 90-odd black-and-white images encourage viewers to delve deep into the darkest part of their psyches. The images in this new monograph were inspired by the simple act of drawing on windows – a practice that Ballen observed first-hand in many communities. From there, he started to experiment using different spray paints on glass and then ‘drawing on’ or removing the paint with a sharp object to let natural light through. Finally, he photographed the results with a macro lens using black-and-white film. These black, dimensionless spaces effectively operate as canvases onto which Ballen projects pictorially his thoughts and emotions, creating, in effect, a theatre of the mind. The plates are separated into seven chapters or ‘acts’, with each one introduced by a text written by Ballen himself. Carving out a realm that is both earthly and otherworldly, physical and spiritual, his work transcends all traditional concepts of photography.

Theresienstadt or Terezin in the Czech Republic is a fortified town sixty kilometres to the north of Prague. At the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, the Germans chose Theresienstadt as a Model Ghetto for Jews over 65 years old, Jewish veterans from the First World War, and known personalities. The Nazis declared the camp a ghetto under Jewish authority, appointing a council of elders with a chairman, but under the authority of the SS. In reality the camp was just another staging post on the way to Auschwitz or Birkenau. Due to the presence of numerous interned professors, artists and writers, there were school and cultural activities, such as lectures and concerts. During the life of the ghetto, over two thousand four hundred lectures took place on such varied topics as the Jews of Babylon, the theory of relativity, Alexander the Great and German humour. There was a functioning library with 49,000 books that had been brought from various collections and homes in Germany and different groups performed theatre. There was even a police force, a fire brigade and several other civic services. One prisoner wrote, Life could seem almost normal here. Terezin is Daniel Blaufuks personal travel and research book on the history of the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt. Daniel Blaufuks has been working on the relation between photography and literature, through works like My Tangier, with the writer Paul Bowles. His recent Collected Short Stories includes several photographic diptychs in a kind of snapshot prose, where visual fragments suggest private stories on their way to becoming public. The relation between public and private has been one of the constant interrogations in his work. He has been showing widely and works mainly in photography and video, presenting his work through books, installations and films. His documentary Under Strange Skies was shown at the Lincoln Center in New York. Recent exhibitions include: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena, LisboaPhoto, Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisbon, Elga Wimmer Gallery, New York, Photoespana, Madrid, where his book Under Strange Skies received the award for Best Photography Book of the Year in the International Category in 2007. In the same year he received the BES Photo Award for the work Terezin.

In 1949 the photographer and co-founder of Magnum Photos, George Rodger, learned of the Nuba tribe while traveling in the Kordofan region of the Sudan. Remarkably, he was granted permission by the Sudanese government to take pictures of these striking people, who lived as their ancestors had centuries before. After publication in National Geographic magazine, these pictures-as well as Rodger's fascinating journal entries from the shoot-have not been available to the wider public. Now, Rodger's rare softly colored Kodachrome images are gathered in a sumptuous volume, and introduced in an essay by photographer Chris Steele-Perkins. Beautifully reproduced, Rodger's photographs emphasize the muted colors of the Sudanese landscape as well as the Nuba's penchant for vivid body paint, clothing, and jewelry. They are a superb example of early color photography, and a stunning celebration of a little-known tribe that lives in one of the world's harshest environments.