UNIQUE COLLECTOR'S COPY by the well-known German photo agency "OSTKREUZ". Signed by ALL 18 (!) ARTISTS of the book in the year of the publication = VINTAGE (!) SIGNATURES. I GUARANTEE THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE SIGNATURES. Signed by: Sibylle Bergemann, Ute und Werner Mahler, Harald Hauswald, Pepa Hristova, Jörg Brüggemann, Espen Eichhöfer, Annette Hauschild, Andrej Krementschouk, Thomas Meyer, Dawin Meckel, Julian Röder, Frank Schinski, Jordis Antonia Schlösser, Anne Schönharting, Linn Schröder, Heinrich Völkel, Maurice Weiss. 18 photographers document cities from Detroit to Manila, to make a composite portrait of a city of all cities. Subtitle of the book: "The City. Becoming and Decaying". New, mint, unread - only opened once for the signatures. Welcome to the "GERMAN PHOTOBOOKS" auction by Ecki Heuser (5Uhr30.com, Cologne) - with more than 100 fantastic lots. IF YOU WIN MORE THAN 1 OF MY BOOKS IN THIS AUCTION, YOU WILL PAY ONLY 1 X SHIPPING COSTS - WORLDWIDE. Ostkreuz Agentur der Fotografen, Berlin. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern. 2010. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. 316 x 291 mm. 296 pages. 170 photos (130 in color). Various photographers (see above). Edited by: Ostkreuz - Agentur der Fotografen. Text: Marcus Jauer, Felix Hoffmann. Text in English and German. FANTASTIC PHOTOBOOK in perfect condition - signed by all 18 (!) artists. COLLECTOR'S ITEM. About the photo agency: "In 1990, the year of german reunification, seven photographers founded the Ostkreuz agency. Their goal: to assert themselves on the market together and to bring like-minded people together. The founding members named themselves after the S-Bahn station that connects eastern Berlin with the rest of the city. Together, they wanted to set out from the capital in all directions to document world events with their cameras and also have a familiar place to reconnect. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the photographers continued to explore new subject areas and now work all over the world. The agency now consists of 25 West and East Germans, as well as international photographers. However, the guiding principle of Ostkreuz has remained the same: The members of the agency photograph socially engaged, artistic projects, while maintaining the principle of authorship. The content is varied, ranging from politics and social criticism to fashion photography. In this way, the photographers document current events and take a stand. Like the world, journalism is in a constant state of change. Events, news and images follow one after the other. Especially now, photographers are needed who pursue their own interests and topics and are persistent enough to develop their own attitudes. Photography and the news world have changed, but the relevance for quality journalism and documentary photography remains. The Ostkreuz photographers do not want to subordinate themselves to the developments in the media landscape, but to help shape them with collaborative projects, book publications and exhibitions, among other things." (website "Ostkreuz"). "OSTKREUZ is a photographic co-operative owned by its 25 photographer-members. The agency’s Berlin-based office realizes exhibitions and connects their photographers with various clients to provide photo productions, editorial assistance, image licensing, and customer support. Shaping society by creating visibility, its members confront and record contemporary history through photography. OSTKREUZ photographers work all over the world to realize personal projects as well as assignments for renowned editorial publications, institutions and companies. Much of what is created in this way is still relevant years later and is sought after by editors, museums and collections. Conscious of its responsibility to preserve the authenticity of the documentary image, OSTKREUZ keeps the process of image creation as transparent as possible." (website "Ostkreuz") About the book: "By now, more people around the world live in cities than in the country. What sort of hopes and dreams are bound up in the city? In what ways does the city influence everyday life as well as people’s relationships with the environment and their fellow human beings? Photographers from the Berlin agency Ostkreuz have investigated these questions. Ostkreuz represents a specific approach—namely, recognizing what is at the heart of things, depicting it, and keeping the pictures honest. The eighteen featured photographers portrait residents of Auroville, an urban utopia in India, the slums of Manila, and the center of a decaying Detroit. They document the city of Ordos in China, which was created on a drawing table, the artificiality of Dubai’s streets, and the bombed-out buildings in Gaza. The result is a portrait of a city that is all cities." (from the publisher)