The Steidl Hotel – Détails, épisodes et analyse

It is now almost two years since the American photographer Jamel Shabazz was awarded the Gordon Parks Foundation / Steidl Book Prize in 2022. The prize culminates in a Steidl publication and Albums was published in the same year. This book presents, for the first time, Shabazz’s work from the 1970s to ’90s as it exists in his archive: small prints thematically grouped and sequenced in traditional family photo albums that function as portable portfolios.

Jamel Shabazz began making portraits in the mid-1970s in Brooklyn, Queens, the West Village and Harlem. His camera was also at his side while working as an officer at Rikers Island in the 1980s, where he took portraits of inmates that he later shared with their friends and families. Shabazz had his rolls of color film processed at a one-hour photo shop that provided two copies of each print: he typically gave one to his sitters, and the second he organized into changing albums to be shown to future subjects.

We talk about Jamel's experience as a street-photographer and what role New York City and its people play in his life.

Albums is available on steidl.de and in local bookshops.

Also check out our German-language literature podcast.

Interview and editing: Korbinian Veit

Many thanks to Susanne Schmidt, Michal Raz-Russo and Peter W. Kunhardt Jr.

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Juergen Teller arrived in Göttingen a couple of days ago together with his wife Docile Drizyte and their newborn daughter Iggy to work on his upcoming books. Between two proofing runs, Juergen Teller had time to record a new episode of »The Steidl Hotel«. Steidl told us that we had exactly 30 minutes to finish the episode and that we had to talk very quickly. This time we are recording right next to the publishing house at the Halftone Hotel, where artists and guests usually stay during their visit at Steidl, and each room has been dedicated to a different artist. We walk up the squeaky stairs of the quest house and sit down in the Jim Dine apartment.

We talk about Juergen Teller's upcoming major solo exhibition in Paris later this year, the accompanying catalog, his approach to fashion photography, and his thoughts on AI generated images.

Juergen Teller's five new books The Myth, Jurgaičiai, Fashion Photography for America 1999–2016, More Handbags as well as the exhibitions catalogue i need to live will soon be available on our website.

The exhibition "i need to live" will be on view at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris from December 16, 2023 to January 9, 2024.

Also check out our German-language literature podcast.

Interview and editing: Korbinian Veit

Many thanks to Emilia Hesse and Susanne Schmidt.

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Theseus Chan is sitting in his studio in Singapore. Since his last project STEIDL–WERK No. 31: GHOST IN THE MACHINE­­­­­­­ is finished and he has already left Göttingen, we have to record our conversation remotely via the internet. He tells me that he found a website with a live camera recording Göttingen's city center and that he just checked our weather conditions here. We talk about his beginnings as a graphic designer, working with fashion brands such as COMME des GARÇONS and his influences as the creator of the renowned WERK Magazine and of course its latest issue.

Theseus Chan lives and works in Singapore. He is known for his multi-layered works with the self-demand to reinvent himself again and again. STEIDL–WERK No. 31 is the fourth magazine collaboration between Gerhard Steidl and Theseus Chan. The two have already collaborated on numerous projects, such as the editorial of ZEIT Magazine in 2015. Theseus Chan has been the editor and creator of WERK Magazine for over 20 years and heads the studio WORK. In his career, he has worked with several fashion brands and managed the GUERILLA store in Singapore for several years. In 2022, he was part of the documenta fifteen partner project "printing futures – art for tomorrow" at Kunsthaus Göttingen. Until September 17, 2023, his exhibition "The Illuminations" together with Jim Dine can be seen at the Günter Grass Archiv in Göttingen.

Check out Theseus Chan's STEIDL–WERK No. 31: GHOST IN THE MACHINE and our other books on our website.

Also check out our German-language literature podcast.

Interview and editing: Korbinian Veit

Many thanks to Daniel Frisch and Emilia Hesse.

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Between color correction sessions for his forthcoming book “Property Rights” Mitch Epstein took the time for a podcast about his sweeping exploration of land rights in America.

It’s a Tuesday afternoon and Nadav Kander looks a little tired. He says the past two nights he was called down to press every two hours to sign off sheets for his upcoming book The Meeting. Despite of being quite exhausted, he likes the state that he’s currently in – like being half-conscious. We spoke about his beginnings, influences, working processes and of course the book - his first of portraits.

Nadav Kander was born 1961 and spent his youth in Johannesburg. He remembers not being so happy when growing up: as a boy who stuttered and didn’t fit into school very well, he always sought the edges of society  something he is still very much interested in today. When Kander looks at his first –photographs he took as a 13 year old, he recognizes the same sense of darkness and unease that is key to his work today. At 21 he left for England and never returned. After working as a photographic assistant for two years he opened up his studio and has worked as a photographer ever since. Selected past projects include Yangtze – The Long River for which he won the Prix Pictet award in 2009 and Obama’s People, an acclaimed series of 52 portraits commissioned by the New York Times Magazine. His work has been shown worldwide at numerous venues such as the Flowers Gallery in New York and London, the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Kander received the World Press Photo award in 2013 and most recently the Sony World Photography award in 2019 for his outstanding contribution to Photography. 

Check out Nadav Kander's and our other books on our website: https://steidl.de 
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A big thank you to Niki Fischer Khonsari for helping with the research and overseeing the recording.