Masters and monographs. An encyclopedia of 20th-century photographers and their finest publications

Arranged alphabetically, this biographical encyclopedia features every major photographer of the 20th century alongside her or his most significant monographs.

From the earliest representatives of classical Modernism right up to the present day, Photographers A–Z celebrates those photographers who have distinguished themselves with important publications or exhibitions, and who have made a significant contribution to the culture of the photographic image. The entries include photographers from North America and Europe as well as from Japan, Latin America, Africa, and China.

Richly illustrated with facsimiles from books and magazines, the collection also features photographers working in “applied” areas, whose work is regarded as photographic art. Star turns include Julius Shulman, Terry Richardson, Cindy Sherman, and David LaChapelle.

About the series:

Bibliotheca Universalis — Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe at an unbeatable, democratic price!

Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible, open-minded publishing. Bibliotheca Universalis brings together more than 100 of our all-time favourite titles in a neat new format so you can curate your own affordable library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia.

Bookworm’s delight — never bore, always excite!

A concise introduction to American street photographer Bruce Gilden, best known for his candid close-up photographs of people on the streets of New York City

Bruce Gilden was born in 1946 and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. After taking photography classes at the School of Visual Arts, he embarked on his first major project: recording tourists and pleasure-seekers visiting Coney Island. Gilden is probably best known for his work on the streets of New York, focusing on the city’s characters and outsiders, but he has also spent many years on projects in Haiti, Japan and Ireland. A member of Magnum Photos since 2001, Gilden has taken the genre of street photography and pushed it in new directions, documenting the essence of the people he sees and the social landscape through which they move.

About the Author:

Hans-Michael Koetzle is a writer, curator, and photo historian. He lives in Munich.

City of Dreams. A visual journey through Vienna’s dazzling history

Explore a city of architectural splendor, ubiquitous history, and incomparable heritage of art, design, and music. This collection brings together hundreds of photographs from the last 175 years to trace the history of Vienna; from imperial city to modern metropolis, from major landmarks to tucked-away treasures, and from the flowering of the fin de siècle to the Cold War.

Vienna combines drama and elegance like no other. For centuries the heart of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the stately city on the Danube, has been defined by vast palaces and imperial grandeur—but behind the Baroque opulence, Vienna is also a place of genteel coffee house culture, epicurean tradition, and a heritage of both delicate and daring music, art, and design, from Johann Strauss to Egon Schiele, from Gustav Mahler to Josef Hoffmann.

This volume is a treasure trove of photography from the last 175 years, following the evolution of Vienna from imperial capital to modern metropolis. Like a visual walk through time and cityscape, hundreds of carefully curated pictures trace the developments in Vienna’s built environment and the cultural and historical trends they reflect, whether the urban Gesamtkunstwerk of the 19th-century Ringstrasse or the experiments of “Red Vienna” in the 1920s, when the city had a social democrat government for the first time.

Through these remarkable photographs, we discover not only the great landmarks and lesser-known corners of Vienna, but also the ubiquity and the tumult of its history. We see the cultural blossoming of the fin de siècle, when radical innovators such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Adolf Loos, and Sigmund Freud turned Vienna into a “laboratory of modernity”; the clashes of 1934; the ascent of Nazi dictatorship; and the horrors writ by the Holocaust in what was once one of the most populous and multi-ethnic cities on earth. More recently, fascinating postwar photographs explore the Vienna of the Third Man, at once a city in ruins and a hub for spies. The book closes with the most recent pictures, celebrating the emergence of today’s Vienna — one of the most attractive cities in Europe, in which rich history once again coexists with international flair and vibrant contemporary culture.

The authors:

Christian Brandstätter, born 1943, founded Brandstätter Verlag in 1982. He is the author and designer of numerous illustrated books, including groundbreaking publications on Vienna around 1900, including Gustav Klimt und die Frauen (1994), Design der Wiener Werkstätte (2003), and Wien 1900: Kunst Design Architektur Mode (2018), as well as on Austrian photographic history.

Andreas J. Hirsch, born 1961 in Vienna, is an author, curator and artistic photographer. His writings include books on Pablo Picasso, Tina Modotti, Friedensreich Hundertwasser and H.R. Giger. From 2009 to 2014, he was curator at the KunstHausWien and organized exhibitions on Henri Cartier-Bresson, Linda McCartney and H.R. Giger, among others.

Hans-Michael Koetzle, born 1953, is a Munich-based freelance author and journalist, focusing mainly on history and the aesthetics of photography. He has published numerous books on photography, including Die Zeitschrift twen (1995), Photo Icons (2001), Das Lexikon der Fotografen (2002), René Burri (2004), Photographers A-Z (2011) and Dr. Paul Wolff & Tritschler (2019).

The Shot. The stories behind history’s most extraordinary photographs

From Nicéphore Niépce’s 1827 eight-hour-exposure rooftop pictures to the horror of Nick Ut’s “napalm girl,” the 50 photographs in this collection have defined eras, made history, or touched something so fundamentally human that they have become resonant icons around the world. Each image goes under the microscope, revealing the history of the medium and its social, historical, and artistic impact.

Photographs have a strange and powerful way of shaping the way we see the world. The most successful images enter our collective consciousness, defining eras, making history, or simply touching something so fundamentally human and universal that they have become resonant icons all over the globe. To explore this unique influence, Photo Icons puts some of the most important photographic landmarks under the microscope.

From some of the earliest photography, such as Nicéphore Niépce’s 1827 eight-hour-exposure rooftop picture and Louis Daguerre’s famous 1838 street scene, through to Martin Parr, this is as much a history of the medium as a case-by-case analysis of its social, historical, and artistic impact. We take in experimental Surrealist shots of the 1920s and the gritty photorealism of the 1930s, including Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother.

We witness the power-makers (Che Guevara) and the heartbreakers (Marilyn Monroe) as well as the great gamut of human emotions and experiences to which photography bears such vivid witness: from the euphoric Kiss in Front of City Hall (1950) by Doisneau to the horror of Nick Ut’s Napalm Against Civilians showing nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phúc running naked toward the camera from South Vietnamese napalm.

The author:

Hans-Michael Koetzle, born 1953, is a Munich-based freelance author and journalist, focusing mainly on history and the aesthetics of photography. He has published numerous books on photography, including Die Zeitschrift twen (1995), Photo Icons (2001), Das Lexikon der Fotografen (2002), René Burri (2004), Photographers A-Z (2011) and Dr. Paul Wolff & Tritschler (2019).

About the series:

Bibliotheca Universalis — Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe at an unbeatable, democratic price!

Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible, open-minded publishing. Bibliotheca Universalis brings together more than 100 of our all-time favourite titles in a neat new format so you can curate your own affordable library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia.

Bookworm’s delight — never bore, always excite!

A glimpse through the keyhole of history. From the earliest nude daguerrotypes to experimental nude photography

The history of nude photography is the history of people’s fascination with the topic. Indeed, the photographic depiction of the human body is the only subject that has enthralled photographers, theoreticians and consumers over such a long period – more than 150 years. No other motif is as prevalent as this one during all the phases of development comprising the history of photography, no other is present, whatever the technique, and is a subject of discussion within the context of nearly all aesthetic movements. Nor has any other pictorial topic produced such a variety of specialities as the nude: from the ethnological interpretation of the body to the glamour shot, from nudist photography to the pin-up of today. No other photographic field of application has inspired as much desire as it has awakened official wrath.

1000 Nudes offers a cross-section of the history of nude photography, ranging from the earliest nude daguerrotypes and ethnographic nude photographs to experimental nude photography. The period of time spanned by this work is from 1839 to roughly 1939, from the medium’s infancy to the end of the classic modernist period. Content-wise, the book pays tribute to the full range of pictorial approaches, from the manually elaborated artistic nudes of the turn of the century, enveloped in layers of theory, to the “obscene” postcard motifs which had not the slightest artistic pretension and were intended to exert a maximum effect on the buyer’s wallet.

All the pictures shown are taken from the late Uwe Scheid’s collection, one of the world’s largest and most important collections of erotic photography.

About the series:

Bibliotheca Universalis — Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe at an unbeatable, democratic price!

Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible, open-minded publishing. Bibliotheca Universalis brings together more than 100 of our all-time favourite titles in a neat new format so you can curate your own affordable library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia.

Bookworm’s delight — never bore, always excite!

Masters and monographs. An encyclopedia of 20th-century photographers and their finest publications

A comprehensive overview of the most influential photographers of the last century and their finest monographs: Arranged alphabetically, this biographical encyclopedia features every major photographer of the 20th century, from the earliest representatives of classical Modernism right up to the present day.

Richly illustrated with facsimiles from books and magazines, this book includes all the major photographers of the last one hundred years - especially those who have distinguished themselves with important publications or exhibitions, or who have made a significant contribution to the culture of the photographic image. The 400 entries include photographers from North America and Europe as well as from Japan, Latin America, Africa, and China.

Photographers A-Z focuses on photographic images and culture, but also features photographers working in "applied" areas, whose work goes beyond the merely illustrative, and is regarded as photographic art and is conserved by major museums, such as Julius Shulman, Terry Richardson, Cindy Sherman, and David LaChapelle, et al.

Featured photographers include:

Ansel Adams, Manuel Álvarez-Bravo, Nobuyoshi Araki, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Elmer Batters, Peter Beard, Cecil Beaton, Werner Bischof, Guy Bourdin, Bill Brandt, Robert Capa, William Claxton, Anton Corbijn, Robert Doisneau, William Eggleston, Masahisa Fukase, Nan Goldin, Jean-Paul Goude, John Heartfield, Eikoh Hosoe, George Hoyningen-Huene, Seydou Keïta, William Klein, Nick Knight, Neil Leifer, Peter Lindbergh, Man Ray, Robert Mapplethorpe, Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, Helmut Newton, Martin Parr, Irving Penn, Pierre et Gilles, Bettina Rheims, Leni Riefenstahl, Sebastião Salgado, Steve Schapiro, Andres Serrano, Cindy Sherman, Kishin Shinoyama, Jeanloup Sieff, Lord Snowdon, Bert Stern, Larry Sultan, Mario Testino, Wolfgang Tillmans, Ellen von Unwerth, Andy Warhol, Bruce Weber, Weegee, Gary Winogrand and many more.

Hans-Michael Koetzle is a Munich-based freelance author and journalist, focusing mainly on history and the aesthetics of photography. He has published numerous books on photography, including Die Zeitschrift twen (1995), Photo Icons (2001), Das Lexikon der Fotografen (2002), and René Burri (2004).

Photographs have a strange and powerful way of shaping the way we see the world and influencing our perceptions of reality. To demonstrate the unique and profound influence on culture and society that photographs have, Photo Icons puts the most important landmarks in the history of photography under the microscope.

Each chapter of this special edition focuses on a single image which is described and analyzed in detail, in aesthetic, historical, and artistic contexts. The book begins with the very first permanent images (Nicéphore Niépce's 1827 eight-hour-exposure rooftop picture and Louis Daguerre's famous 1839 street scene) and takes the reader up through the present day, via the avant-garde photography of the 1920s and works such as Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother (1936), Robert Doisneau's Kiss in Front of City Hall (1950), and Martin Parr's 'New European photography.'

Photographs have a strange and powerful way of shaping the way we see the world and influencing our perceptions of reality. To demonstrate the unique and profound influence on culture and society that photographs have, Photo Icons puts the most important landmarks in the history of photography under the microscope.

Each chapter of this special edition focuses on a single image which is described and analyzed in detail, in aesthetic, historical, and artistic contexts. The book begins with the very first permanent images (Nicéphore Niépce's 1827 eight-hour-exposure rooftop picture and Louis Daguerre's famous 1839 street scene) and takes the reader up through the present day, via the avant-garde photography of the 1920s and works such as Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother (1936), Robert Doisneau's Kiss in Front of City Hall (1950), and Martin Parr's 'New European photography.'

Each chapter of the two Photo Icons volumes focuses on a single image which is described and analyzed in detail, in aesthetic, historical, and artistic contexts.

Volume I begins with the very first permanent images (Nicéphore Niépce's 1827 8-hour-exposure rooftop picture and Louis Daguerre's famous 1839 street scene) and takes the reader up through the avant-garde photography of the 1920s.

Volume II explores works such as Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother (1936) and Robert Doisneau's Kiss in Front of City Hall (1950), up through Martin Parr's 'New European photography.'

Each chapter of the two Photo Icons volumes focuses on a single image which is described and analyzed in detail, in aesthetic, historical, and artistic contexts.

Volume I begins with the very first permanent images (Nicéphore Niépce's 1827 8-hour-exposure rooftop picture and Louis Daguerre's famous 1839 street scene) and takes the reader up through the avant-garde photography of the 1920s.

Volume II explores works such as Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother (1936) and Robert Doisneau's Kiss in Front of City Hall (1950), up through Martin Parr's 'New European photography.'

Photographs have a strange and powerful way of shaping the way we see the world and influencing our perceptions of reality. To demonstrate the unique and profound influence on culture and society that photographs have, Photo Icons puts the most important landmarks in the history of photography under the microscope. Each chapter focuses on a single image which is described and analyzed in detail, in aesthetic, historical, and artistic contexts. Volume I begins with the very first permanent images (Nicéphore Niépce's 1827 8-hour-exposure rooftop picture and Louis Daguerre's famous 1839 street scene) and takes the reader up through the avant-garde photography of the 1920s.