
Gerhard Steidl is making books an art form - koevet
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/22/gerhard-steidl-is-making-books-an-art-form
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captainmuon
I'm from Göttingen, and I find the article to be strangely one-sided. Steidl
is clearly a great publisher, artist and businessman. But he also comes across
as very presumptuous, the kind of cultural elite that lives detached from the
plebs. The part where he rides in his converted Phaeton and drinks wine is
real-life satire.

The Grass quarter of the city, mentioned in the article, is also problematic.
As always with projects like this, nobody in the city is asked. By virtue of
owning the land, having connections to the city council, or being an art
figure (or all three) you unilaterally get to decide how a plot of land in the
center of this small town is used. The city government thinks it is a great
idea, but really only the small portion of the city's educated and well-off
will tend to visit the museum and the exibitions. Again, this is all quite
detached. It's the same impetus that lets cities put up hideous art and
monuments in common places without ever asking the residents (also quite a
problem IMHO in Göttingen but also elsewhere).

(Not to mention that some people say Günther Grass never properly processed
his past in the SA and was quite anisemitic in his old days... I think that's
rather tangential, but Steidl is the kind of person who is seen as on the
moral "high ground" and from whom such scandals tend to pearl of.)

~~~
_Codemonkeyism
Nice how you make an article about printing books of photographs and the
person who does this into class and culture warfare to top it off with the SA
- Grass obviously was the easy bridge to go over - as he always is - how else
could you have written a comment about Steidl and the SA only separated by one
paragraph. Bravo!

Plan b would have been to go the Lagerfeld, Chanel, Nazi route - but then this
is French territory and surely not as satisfying as only using German bricks
to build this up.

I like that one though,

"but really only the small portion of the city's educated and well-off will
tend to visit the museum and the exibitions."

one of the dirty little secrets in Germany, how the majority of people pay for
the subsidies of museums, exhibitions and opera houses and a small portion of
the public profits (artists) or enjoys them (upper class and rich people).
Just like with our subsidized universities - but I'd rather not go over that
bridge.

~~~
ouid
Museum subsidies exist primarily to attract tourism, which brings more money
into the full economy than museums can recoup directly. This makes them
unsustainable as private enterprises, but still good investments, as the
amount you can collect in taxes goes up by more than the cost of the subsidy.
Since the government determines the tax rate based on what it still needs to
be able to fund (things like healthcare and roads). The museum subsidy
probably lowers your individual tax bill.

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theoh
Before becoming a fan of Steidl, watch the documentary "How to Make a Book
with Steidl"

As the New Yorker piece says: "Steidl is aggressively modest, insisting that
as a printer he is a technician, not an artist."

He's a strange character.

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egypturnash
> Steidl’s press can print six colors—or five colors and a lacquer—at once.
> For Gossage’s book, ten colors were required, which meant that each sheet
> had to go through the printer at least twice.

fffff and I thought _I_ was making impractical overproduced books when I did a
graphic novel with 4c+spot gloss on every page. I shudder to imagine how much
the books this guy prints cost.

oh wait Chanel pays him obscene buckets of money for printing stuff for them,
and then he uses that money to pretty much potter around printing collections
of photographs for materials cost, if that. Well okay I guess?

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rfrank
Books have always been an art form...

~~~
cooper12
The title refers more to the physical book process itself rather than just the
contents. That's why the article spends paragraphs talking about his
meticulous choices in ink and paper, and trivialities like silk that will show
in the binding or the exact color of the bookmark. The article differentiates
him with how he has the luxury to spend months on projects and do longer and
more expensive print runs. A normal publisher would just probably go with
glossy paper, whatever size the artist prefers, and cheaply mass produce
coffee-books, but he is shown to be more collaborative and discerning.

~~~
Mikhail_Edoshin
I think the author of the comment meant the physical process. It was and is an
art and art doesn't have to be posh and expensive to be art. The article title
sounds as if it used to be a mere utility process until this guy. Besides, I
was expecting to find examples of books inside with examples of good
typography or art editing, but there's none; this is strange.

~~~
cooper12
> The article title sounds as if it used to be a mere utility process until
> this guy

That's a good point as it makes it seem like anyone preceding him had no
creativity or standards. That's titles for you though, interesting always
trumps descriptive or objective.

> I was expecting to find examples of books inside with examples of good
> typography or art editing

Yeah I was actually expecting something similar but turns out this is more
about the product itself rather than any of the contents. Besides, they're
photography books so most of the focus will be on the photographs.

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devmunchies
> _It promises politicians the luxury of no longer having to worry about
> unemployment._

Yes, but it would no doubt _increase_ unemployment, decreasing the pool of
willing workers. Is there something I'm missing? Why is that not a concern?

~~~
cooper12
I think you meant to comment on this article:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14333686](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14333686)

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Odenwaelder
Does he offer PDF versions of his books tho

