Steidl is a German-language publisher based in

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) 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. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

, Germany. Founded in 1968 by Gerhard Steidl, it publishes photobooks.

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 (often stylized documenta) is an Art exhibition, exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. Documenta was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgarte ...

'' (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 American photographer and documentary filmmaker. His most notable work, the 1958 book titled ''The Americans'', earned Frank comparisons to a modern-day de Tocqueville for his ...

, Joel Sternfeld, Richard Serra, Bruce Davidson, Arnold Odermatt, Edward Ruscha, Susan Meiselas, Karl Lagerfeld, Saul Leiter,

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

, 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 luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. It is privately owned by French brothers, Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, through the holding company Chanel Limited, established in 2018 and headquarte ...

. 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, collector's edition or expanded edition are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as b ...

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. Steidl held the worldwide rights to the work of

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

Laureate

Günter Grass Günter Wilhelm 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 Danzig (now Gda ...

from 1993 until Grass's death. From 2009 to 2010, the Musée de l'Élysée (

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

) 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 the world's oldest photographic society having been in continuous existence since 1853. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as th ...

References

External links

*
Gerhard Steidl: Fine art of Steidl book + Last Impressions
by Marie-Claire Mermoud at egodesign.ca. {{Authority control 1968 establishments in West Germany 1972 establishments in West Germany Book publishing companies of Germany Mass media in Göttingen Publishing companies established in 1972 Visual arts publishing companies