Steidl is a German-language publisher, an international publisher of

photobooks A photo book or photobook is a book in which photographs make a significant contribution to the overall content. A photo book is related to and also often used as a coffee table book. Early Early photo books are characterized by their use o ...

, 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 and is still run by him.

Overview

The company was started by Gerhard Steidl.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, erhardSteidl 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 Robert Frank (November 9, 1924 – September 9, 2019) was a Swiss Documentary photography, photographer and documentary filmmaker, who became an American binational. His most notable work, the 1958 book titled The Americans (photography), ''The ...

, Joel Sternfeld,

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 of ...

, Bruce Davidson, Arnold Odermatt, Edward Ruscha,

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 ...

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 u ...

, Saul Leiter,

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, Juergen Teller 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 i ...

. 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, ...

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." Alfre ...

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 Lausanne ( , , , ) ; it, Losanna; rm, Losanna. is the capital and largest city of the Swiss French speaking canton of Vaud. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway between the Jura Mountains and the Alps, and fac ...

) 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''. In 2020, Gerhard Steidl received the Gutenberg Prize of the International Gutenberg Society and the City of Mainz. 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