Michael Schmidt - BERLIN Stadtlandschaft und Menschen - 1978

Michael Schmidt – Berlin. Stadtlandschaft und Menschen – First Edition (1978) A highly sought-after first edition of Berlin. Stadtlandschaft und Menschen, one of the earliest and most significant photobooks by renowned German photographer Michael Schmidt. Published in 1978, this landmark work marks the beginning of Schmidt's lifelong photographic exploration of Berlin. Through a carefully sequenced series of black-and-white photographs, he presents an uncompromising vision of the city's urban landscape alongside intimate portraits of its inhabitants. The restrained visual language, subtle tonal range, and rigorous composition already reveal the distinctive style that would later establish Schmidt as one of the most influential European photographers of the post-war period. Rather than celebrating the city, Schmidt depicts Berlin as a place shaped by isolation, architecture, and everyday life, creating a timeless document of West Berlin during the late 1970s. The book is now considered a landmark in German documentary photography and an essential title for collectors of twentieth-century photobooks.