BOOK FORMAT Hardcover, 10.5 x 11.25 in. / 636 pages / illustrated throughout.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 11/24/2015 Active
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2015 p. 5
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9783958290310TRADE List Price: $150.00 CDN $200.00
AVAILABILITY In stock
"The Soviet Photobook 1920-1941 is a comprehensive heavyweight affair that gives a history of the greatest period of photobook production ever undertaken. It’s a serious book with serious texts on a serious subject. And it’s astonishingly illustrated with spreads taken from publications few of us ever knew even existed." Colin Pantall
The Soviet Union was unique in its dynamic use of the illustrated book as a means of propaganda. Through the form of the book, the USSR articulated its utopian (and eventually totalitarian) ideologies and expressed its absolute power through avant-garde writing and radical graphic design that was in full flower during the 1920s and 1930s.
No other country or political system advanced its cause by attracting and employing acclaimed members of the avant-garde. Among them were writers such as Semion Kirsanov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Ilya Selvinsky, Sergei Tretyakov and Kornely Zelinsky; artist designers such as Gustav Klutsis, Valentina Kulagina, El Lissitzky, Sergei Senkin, Varvara Stepanova, Solomon Telingater and Nikolai Troshin; and photographers such as Dmitry Debabov, Vladimir Griuntal, Boris Ignatovich, Alexander Khlebnikov, Yeleazar Langman, Alexander Rodchenko and Georgy Petrusov, not to mention many of the best printing plants and bookbinders.
Gorgeously produced, edited and designed, The Soviet Photobook 1920-1941 presents 160 of the most stunning and elaborately produced photobooks from this period and includes more than 400 additional reference illustrations. The book also provides short biographies of the photobook contributors, some of whom are presented for the first time.
Featured spread is from "The Air Force of the Great Homeland," a special aviation issue of Ogoniok magazine designed by Ivan Leistikov and Alexei Levin, 1934.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Bint Photobooks
Colin Pantall
gorgeous to look at with an authority to match.
Spectrum Culture
Pat Padua
Students of history will find it a fascinating and heartbreaking reminder of yesterday. Students of photography and design will find it a sobering and provocative look at the kind of visual communication that is still with us today.
Kraszna-Krausz Best Photography Book Award Shortlist, 2016
A wonderful treasure-trove in which Karasik and Heiting present, in great detail, 160 of the very best Soviet photobooks from this most radical period of design and photography.
Vantage
Alyssa Coppelman
Chock full of a dizzying number of images on its 600+ pages.... The book's design reflects its subject matter well and includes three pages of index and an extensive glossary of those involved with the creation of or published in the books. I'll be looking at this for years.
CHOICE
S. M. Quimby
With this amazing publication, English-language readers are offered a glimpse into a rarely seen moment of history through the selection and reproduction of approximately 160 Soviet photobooks... Colossal in size and beautifully illustrated, and a fascinating read.
in stock $150.00
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Sunday, December 13, Arcana: Books on the Arts and PAC/LA present a launch and signing for The Soviet Photobook, the new 636-page compendium from Steidl. Join author Manfred Heiting from 4-6PM for a discussion of the work in this extraordinary collector's volume, followed by a book signing and reception! continue to blog
This week, we release Steidl's phenomenal, standard-setting examination of The Soviet Photobook 1920-1941. Collecting more than 150 examples over 636 beautifully designed, generously illustrated and gorgeously printed pages, this volume "only scratches the surface of the U.S.S.R.'s propaganda book production during the decisive years between 1920 and 1941, the year of Nazi Germany's offensive against the Motherland," noted photography collector, curator and designer and editor of this volume Manfred Heiting writes in his Introduction. continue to blog
Featured spreads, from the early 1930s Soviet propaganda book Shock Workers (edited by Boris Malkin and Alexander Brodsky and designed by Valentina Khodashevich and Andrei Diderikhs), are reproduced from The Soviet Photobook 1920-1941, Steidl's remarkable new 636-page compendium. (See more spreads here.) "Shock working (working at high productivity, doing overtime or continuing to work after meeting your quota for no extra wages) was one of the main methods by which the first Five-Year Plans were accomplished. Unprecedented titanic labor in the mines, factories and fields and in the transport sphere created a new economy. The subjects of the photographs are workers and collective farmers; the shots were taken in the workplace or in the field. The faces are frozen and serious. Two years later this severity would be criticized and the heroes of labor began to smile." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 10.5 x 11.25 in. / 636 pages / illustrated throughout. LIST PRICE: U.S. $150.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $200 ISBN: 9783958290310 PUBLISHER: Steidl AVAILABLE: 11/24/2015 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by Steidl. Edited by Mikhail Karasik, Manfred Heiting.
The Soviet Union was unique in its dynamic use of the illustrated book as a means of propaganda. Through the form of the book, the USSR articulated its utopian (and eventually totalitarian) ideologies and expressed its absolute power through avant-garde writing and radical graphic design that was in full flower during the 1920s and 1930s.
No other country or political system advanced its cause by attracting and employing acclaimed members of the avant-garde. Among them were writers such as Semion Kirsanov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Ilya Selvinsky, Sergei Tretyakov and Kornely Zelinsky; artist designers such as Gustav Klutsis, Valentina Kulagina, El Lissitzky, Sergei Senkin, Varvara Stepanova, Solomon Telingater and Nikolai Troshin; and photographers such as Dmitry Debabov, Vladimir Griuntal, Boris Ignatovich, Alexander Khlebnikov, Yeleazar Langman, Alexander Rodchenko and Georgy Petrusov, not to mention many of the best printing plants and bookbinders.
Gorgeously produced, edited and designed, The Soviet Photobook 1920-1941 presents 160 of the most stunning and elaborately produced photobooks from this period and includes more than 400 additional reference illustrations. The book also provides short biographies of the photobook contributors, some of whom are presented for the first time.
