Steidl is a German-language publisher, an international publisher of photobooks, and a printing company, based in

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

, Germany. It was started in 1968 by

Gerhard Steidl Gerhard Steidl (born 1950) is a German printer and publisher. He is the founder of the publishing company Steidl. In 2020, he was awarded the Gutenberg Prize of the International Gutenberg Society and the City of Mainz. Life and work Gerhard Stei ...

and is still run by him.

Overview

The company was started by

.Bill Kouwenhoven, "Off to see the wizard", ''British Journal of Photography,'' March 2010, pp. 68–71. Reproduce
here
as "Welcome to Steidlville". Accessed 8 January 2011. The company's first book was ''Befragung der

Documenta ''documenta'' is an exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. The ''documenta'' was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Horticultura ...

'' (1972).

From 1974,
erhard Erhard is a male German given name and surname, and may refer to: People *Erhard of Regensburg, bishop of Regensburg in the 7th century * Erhard Altdorfer (c. 1480–1561), German Early Renaissance printmaker, painter and architect *Erhard Arnold J ...
Steidl added political non-fiction to his program. In the early 1980s, he expanded into literature and selected art and photography books, and in 1989, he published his first paperback editions. ..In 1996, Steidl finally decided to follow his passion for photography and to start his own internationally oriented photo book program.

Gerhard Steidl still heads the company and is in charge of the production of every book. He endeavours to follow the preferences of the particular photographer for layout, paper, and binding, and insists on working with paper, because of the importance of the feel of the book and the difference between backlighting and reflected light. Printing, binding and all other work is done within a four-storey house on Düstere Strasse in

. From 1996, Steidl also specialized in photography. He published the works of photographers such as Robert Frank,

Joel Sternfeld Joel Sternfeld (born June 30, 1944) is an American fine-art color photographer. He is noted for his large-format documentary pictures of the United States and helping establish color photography as a respected artistic medium. Sternfeld's work is ...

Richard Serra Richard Serra (born November 2, 1938) is an American artist known for his large-scale sculptures made for site-specific landscape, urban, and architectural settings. Serra's sculptures are notable for their material quality and exploration o ...

, Bruce Davidson,

Arnold Odermatt Arnold Odermatt (25 May 1925 − 19 June 2021) was a Swiss police photographer whose work spanned more than 40 years. Originally trained as a baker, he was a photographer for the Nidwalden cantonal police from 1948 until his retirement in 1990. ...

Edward Ruscha Edward Joseph Ruscha IV (, ''roo-SHAY''; born December 16, 1937) is an American artist associated with the pop art movement. He has worked in the media of painting, printmaking, drawing, photography and film. He is also noted for creating severa ...

Susan Meiselas Susan Meiselas (born June 21, 1948) is an American documentary photographer. She has been associated with Magnum Photos since 1976 and been a full member since 1980. Currently she is the President of the Magnum Foundation. She is best known for h ...

Karl Lagerfeld Karl Otto Lagerfeld (; 10 September 1933 – 19 February 2019) was a German fashion designer, creative director, artist and photographer. He was known as the creative director of the French fashion house Chanel, a position held from 1983 ...

Saul Leiter Saul Leiter (December 3, 1923 – November 26, 2013) was an American photographer and painter whose early work in the 1940s and 1950s was an important contribution to what came to be recognized as the New York school of photography.Jane Livin ...

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

Martin Schoeller Martin Schoeller (born March 12, 1968) is a New York-based photographer whose style of "hyper-detailed close ups" is distinguished by similar treatment of all subjects whether they are celebrities or unknown. His most recognizable work are his ...

Juergen Teller Juergen Teller (born 28 January 1964) is a German fine-art and fashion photographer. He was awarded the Citibank Prize for Photography in 2003 and received the Special Presentation International Center of Photography Infinity Award in 2018. Maj ...

and many others. Advertising materials—including catalogues, flyers and invitations to haute couture shows—are produced for

Chanel Chanel ( , ) is a French high-end luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. Chanel specializes in women's ready-to-wear, luxury goods, and accessories and licenses its name and branding to Luxottica for eyewear. Chanel is ...

. Steidl and Lagerfeld worked together from the early 1990s until his death in 2019. In 2006, Lagerfeld said that Gerhard Steidl was the "best printer in the world". The number of titles produced by Steidl is unusually large for an art publisher: about three hundred a year. Gerhard Steidl produces

special edition The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, r ...

s, but prefers what he calls "'democratic books' or more 'prêt à porter' books", books that can freely be reprinted if the demand for them is sufficient. Since 1993 up to his death, Steidl has held the worldwide rights to the work of

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

Laureate

Günter Grass Günter Wilhelm Grass (born Graß; ; 16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in the Free City of Da ...

. From 2009 to 2010, the

Musée de l'Élysée Musée de l'Élysée is a museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, entirely devoted to photography. It is a government-supported institution founded in 1985 by Charles-Henri Favrod. It was housed in an 18th-century mansion until October 2020.

(

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

) held an exhibition, ''The Fine Art and Craft of the Steidl Book, Lasting Impressions.'' Steidl was the topic of a 2010 documentary, ''

How to Make a Book with Steidl How may refer to: * How (greeting), a word used in some misrepresentations of Native American/First Nations speech * How, an interrogative word in English grammar Art and entertainment Literature * ''How'' (book), a 2007 book by Dov Seid ...

''. In 2020, Gerhard Steidl received the

Gutenberg Prize of the International Gutenberg Society and the City of Mainz The Gutenberg Prize of the International Gutenberg Society and the City of Mainz has been awarded since 1968 for outstanding artistic, technical and scientific achievements in the field of printing. The award was initially awarded every three years ...

. In 2021, Gerhard Steidl received the Award for Photographic Publishing of the

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...

References

External links

*
Gerhard Steidl: Fine art of Steidl book + Last Impressions
by Marie-Claire Mermoud at egodesign.ca. {{Authority control 1960s establishments 1972 establishments in West Germany Book publishing companies of Germany Mass media in Göttingen Publishing companies established in 1972 Visual arts publishing companies