Michael Schmidt - Ein-Heit (MINT CONDITION, SHRINK-WRAPPED) - 2022

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT GERMAN PHOTOBOOKS EVER PUBLISHED.
EXCELLENT NEW EDITION of the legendary photobook about Germany's reunification by Michael Schmidt.

One of the best books by the famous German photographer - in BRANDNEW CONDITION.

Michael Schmidt became famous through 'Waffenruhe' ('Ceasefire') and through 'Ein-heit' ('U-ni-ty').
As first German photographer he got a solo-exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MOMA).

Michael Schmidt's book 'Waffenruhe' is mentioned here:
- Martin Parr, The Photobook, vol 2, page 65
- The Open Book, Hasselblad Center, page 336/337
- 802 photo books from the M.+M. Auer collection, page 673

New, mint, unread; still originally shrink-wrapped in publisher's plastic foil.
COLLECTOR'S COPY.

This is the LAST EXCLUSIVE BEST-OF-PHOTOBOOKS AUCTION by 5Uhr30.com, Cologne, Germany -
STARTING THIS YEAR.

'Michael Schmidt is one of Germany's most famous post-war photographers.
In his out-of-print artist's book "Ein-heit", he traces the universal iconography of political systems and the images of humankind they project. Addressing the complex relationship between the individual and the state, he asks how we can resist the loss of individuality inherent in systems of mass control. In his uncompromising view of reality, Michael Schmidt mixes photographs of already published photographs with those of his own making to the point where reality and imagination merge, creating a densely woven structure of associations and emotions. The second, actual edition of this artist's book meets the first edition from 1996.'
(from the publisher)

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Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, Cologne. 2022. Second edition.

Hardcover (as issued). 195 x 264 mm. 320 pages. 161 black and white photos. Photos: Michael Schmidt. Edited by "Stiftung für Fotografie und Medienkunst" with "Archiv Michael Schmidt". Text von Thomas Weski. Text in German.

Highly impressive and important German photobook - in perfect condition.

Michael Schmidt was a German photographer. His subjects of interest were Berlin and "the weight of German identity in modern history." In 1965 Schmidt began photographing the streets, buildings and people of West Berlin in a semi-documentary approach. He went on to make a series of "ambitious projects" there, all in black and white and becoming more impressionistic, until his death in 2014. Each project was exhibited, then published as a book. Schmidt was a member of the Düsseldorf School of Photography.
In 1976, he founded the Werkstatt für Photographie (Workshop for Photography) in Berlin.
U-nit-y was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1996, Frauen was shown at the Berlin Biennale in 2010 and Lebensmittel, a series about the global food industry, at the Venice Biennale in 2013. A retrospective of his work was held at Haus der Kunst in Munich in 2010. His book Waffenruhe (1987) was included in Parr and Badger's The Photobook: A History, Volume II. He died in 2014, a couple of days after winning the Prix Pictet for Lebensmittel.

Michael Schmidt was born on 6 October 1945 in East Berlin, five months after the German surrender ended World War II in Europe. His family crossed to West Berlin before the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. He began photographing in 1965 when he was 20 years old. In 1976, Schmidt founded the Werkstatt für Photographie (Workshop for Photography) at the Volkhochschule (Adult Education Center) in Berlin. The school "played a critical role in Berlin becoming a transatlantic forum of exchange between European and American photographers."
His early series about Berlin, Stadtlandschaft (Urban Landscapes) (1974–1975) and Berlin, Stadtbilder (Berlin, Urban Images) (1976–1980), "mapped out the city in which he lived in a semi-documentary way". Other series about Berlin include Berlin-Wedding (1976–1978); Berlin nach 45 (Berlin after 45) (1980); Waffenruhe (Ceasefire) (1985–1987), about the Berlin Wall and those affected by it; and Ein-heit (U-ni-ty) (1991–1994), contemporary urban landscapes and portraits from Germany mixed with historical images from the National Socialist / Nazism period, his response to the fall of the Wall in 1989 and the subsequent reunification of East and West Germany.
Natur (Nature) (1987–1997) contains black and white images of the German landscape. Lebensmittel (foodstuff) took seven years to make, with Schmidt travelling worldwide. He photographed "across the spectrum of mass food production, from factory farms" (including salmon farms and dairy farms), and bread factories, "to industrial slaughterhouses and on to plastic-wrapped, sanitised portions of food in supermarkets.
He died on 24 May 2014.