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PHOTOGRAPHY SURVEYS | COLLECTIONS | MOVEMENTS | EXHIBITIONS

PUBLISHER
Hatje Cantz

BOOK FORMAT
Hardcover, 5 x 7 in. / 112 pgs / 52 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: FALL 2019 p. 76   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9783775745994 TRADE
List Price: $13.95 CAD $18.95

AVAILABILITY
Out of stock

TERRITORY
NA LA

THE FALL 2025 ARTBOOK | D.A.P. CATALOG

Artbook | D.A.P. Catalog Cover Link
Preview our FALL 2025 catalog, featuring more than 500 new books on art, photography, design, architecture, film, music and visual culture.
  

HATJE CANTZ

Polar Bears

Edited by Jochen Raiss.

Polar Bears

From the collector behind Women in Trees, images of a bizarre photo craze

People in polar-bear costumes on the beach, at pubs and fairs, arm in arm with toddlers, men, women: it can only be another gem from the collection of Hamburg-based photophile Jochen Raiss, whose flea-market finds of photos depicting women in trees have already won the enthusiasm of photography fans (Women in Trees and More Women in Trees). Here he reveals yet more treasures from his trove in this new and mysterious series of people posing with polar bears.

The shaggy white creature appears in the oddest places, serving both willingly and naturally as a photographic motif. Where did this trend originate, and why has the polar bear, of all creatures, become so popular? This entertaining little volume collects the best pictures from Raiss’ collection.


Featured image is reproduced from 'Polar Bears.'

PRAISE AND REVIEWS

Zócalo Public Square

Jackie Mansky

...a radically different framing of the polar bear as we know it. But that’s the point. Polar Bears invites us into a happy fantasy of a world different than the one we inhabit.

Polar Bears

STATUS: Out of stock

Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.

FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 12/5/2019

What's not to love about Germans, vintage photography and Polar Bears?

What's not to love about Germans, vintage photography and Polar Bears?

Featured image is reproduced from Polar Bears, the infectious new book of German vintage photography from Jochen Raiss, the collector behind perennial bestseller Women in Trees. "It is said that in times of climate change, the polar bear is the most popular animal in the world," Norbert Thomma writes. "In the 1920s, people presumably had less sympathy for it, but it was admired for its savage exoticism. It is not known who first came up with the idea of photographs of people posing with polar bears. A successful ad campaign by Steiff, the German manufacturer of stuffed animals, may have provided the inspiration, or maybe it was billboards for a large zoo. Jochen Raiss… considers both theses improbable. He believes some clever photographer at a seaside resort on the Baltic Sea must have been the first to discover polar bears as a business model, had his assistant get into a costume, and take photographs at popular tourist sites, which were then quickly developed by a second assistant." See other Staff Pick Stocking Stuffers here! continue to blog


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