Published by Walther König, Köln. Text by Ute Esklidsen, Janos Frecot, Peter Galassi, Heinz Liesbrock, Thomas Weski.
Author of now-classic photobooks such as Waffenruhe and Berlin-Wedding, Berlin-based photographer Michael Schmidt (1945-2014) was acclaimed in his lifetime for his black-and-white, documentary-style depictions of his native city. This is the first full appraisal of his work, featuring numerous images of working material such as work prints or book dummies, as well as archival material—invitation cards, posters and exhibition views. Essays by Ute Eskildsen, Janos Frecot, Peter Galassi, Heinz Liesbrock and Thomas Weski, who worked closely with Schmidt on various projects during his lifetime, complement these materials.
Schmidt was born on 6 October 1945 in East Berlin, five months after the German surrender. His family crossed to West Berlin before the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. His earliest series on Berlin, Stadtlandschaft (Urban Landscapes) (1974-75) and Berlin, Stadtbilder (Berlin, Urban Images) (1976-80), established the idiom he would pursue for the rest of his life.
Published by Walther König, Köln. Edited with text by Thomas Weski. Text by Horst Bowith, Heinz Ohff.
After the reissue of German photographer Michael Schmidt’s (1945–2014) legendary photobook Waffenruhe (1987) comes a new edition of Berlin-Wedding (1978), collecting his documentary-style images of Berlin’s Wedding district.
Published by Koenig Books. Text by Janos Frecot, Einar Schleef, Karin Schmidt, Thomas Weski.
Waffenruhe, a now classic photobook by Michael Schmidt (1945–2014), was first published in 1987 by the Berlin-based Dirk Nishen Verlag. It quickly sold out and continues to fetch high prices on the antiquarian book market; it is reprinted here for the first time. The book is Schmidt's portrait of a still-divided Berlin: it brings together surprising combinations of high-contrast, black-and-white images to express a generation's dystopian sense of life shortly before the fall of the Wall. Schmidt evokes a world of ruptures and absences that eschews any comprehensive perspective.
The images combine with a text by author and director Einar Schleef to create a brusque, entirely individual vision of the fragility of human existence—a book that is regularly included among the most influential photographic books of the 20th century.
Published by Walther König, Köln. Photographs by Michael Schmidt.
Michael Schmidt's brand new series Frauen was especially conceived for the EXPO 2000 in Hanover, and portrays young women in their twenties who are still in the process of developing the characteristic features of a discrete individual identity.
PUBLISHER Walther König, Köln
BOOK FORMAT Hardcover, 9 x 12 in. / 140 pgs / 56 duotone.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 8/2/2000 Out of print
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2000
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9783883754239SDNR30 List Price: $50.00 CAD $60.00