Getting a book published, for most photographers, is a daunting enterprise, fraught with uncertainty, missteps and, not uncommonly, costs that can sideline vacation plans for a couple of years. Self-publishing is becoming a more reliable option as small-scale printing setups have improved dramatically in the last couple of years. But having a book done by a top publishing house is a kind of Mecca, and having a book done by Steidl is, for many, an impossible dream.

At a panel discussion titled “Pictures Into Pages” presented by AIPAD last March, Gerhard Steidl told the audience that he operates from a highly privileged position that enables him to publish only the books that interest him. He has a steady supply of commercial work that includes printing catalogues for Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel, as well as each new book by Nobel laureate Günter Grass. This provides the income that enables him to indulge his passion for photobooks.

Gerhard Steidl in Steidlville (left); with Ed Rucha (right). Screen shots from How to Make a Book With Steidl.

Steidl participates in every design decision and personally checks each sheet leaving his printing shop in Göttingen. This perfectionism, combined with a lifetime commitment to the craft of printing and manufacturing books has gained him worldwide attention.

In fact, the first Paris Book Prize was awarded last week to Paul Graham’s 12-volume edition, A Shimmer of Possibility, published by Steidl in 2007. This week, a new film, How to Make a Book with Steidl, is being screened at MoMA. In it, filmmakers Gereon Wetzel and Joerg Adolph follow Steidl as he collaborates with world famous photographers Joel Sternfeld, Robert Frank, Ed Ruscha, Jeff Wall and Robert Adams, at their studios and other places of work, in New York, London and Paris, in the Katar desert, and, of course, in Göttingen. Here, in “Steidlville”, their works are printed on Steidl‘s presses, in three shifts around the clock.

The screening schedule for How to Make a Book With Steidl are: 11/25--4:30, 11/26--2:00 and 5:00, 11/27--3:00, 11/28--7:00, 11/30--5:00. Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53^rd Street, NY, NY.

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