Art Peace China Daily

In springtime 2018 I spent a few weeks inside the modern world’s dystopian dream, living under constant video surveillance and being identified by face recognition software wherever I went. The authorities aim to control everybody and everything with an ever-growing number of cameras. The daily paper informed me of whatever anomalies the omnipresent cameras recorded and also what had escaped them. Art Peace China Daily is the report of my sojourn in this country.
2018
digital print, b/w
14.8 x 10.5 cm, 72 pages
softcover, perfect bound
100 copies
16 €

Bilderbuch 2.0

Bilderbuch draws on an extensive archive of photographs taken from newspapers, magazines, books etc. that I have been gathering over more than 40 years. A selection from this ongoing collection of printed matter, removed from the original context and presented without any comment, was first published in book form in 2012. Bilderbuch 2.0 is an expanded remix of the book’s first edition.
2017
digital print, colour
21 x 14.8 cm, 144 pages
softcover, perfect bound
100 copies
32 €

Kunstgeschichte für alle

Das Pin-Up-Foto hat seinen angestammten Platz in der Boulevardpresse, doch ganz ohne Tarnung kommt es selten daher. Den nackt posierenden Frauen werden Geschichten angedichtet und erzieherische Worte in den Mund gelegt, wobei die Themen dieser kurzen Texte so beliebig wie austauschbar sind – gelegentlich taucht selbst Kunst in diesem Kontext auf. Kunstgeschichte für alle versammelt eine Reihe solch populärer Einführungen in die weite Welt der Kunst, deren auffälligstes Merkmal ist, dass die Porträts ihrer vermeintlichen Autorinnen im Vergleich zum gewohnten Bild der Kunsthistorikerin recht freizügig sind und mehr Raum einnehmen als die knappen Erläuterungen des jeweiligen Gegenstands. Hier reden keine Kunstgeschichtler über weibliche Akte, sondern Akte über Kunstgeschichte.
Die Zeitungsausschnitte stammen aus den 80er Jahren des 20. Jahrhunderts, der Buchentwurf von 1990.
2013
digital print, colour
29.7 x 21 cm, 28 pages
softcover, saddle-stitched
100 copies

Archiv

Archiv (1986–1999) is an analytical survey of international vernacular photography through the course of 20th century consisting of assortments of images – snapshots, studio photos, postcards, commercial photos, photos of missing people, newspaper images – grouped and classified according to their similarity on panels. The panels highlight the mechanical uniformity and conformity of image production, the collective patterns and rituals of popular photographic representations. The project is a history, a commentary, and a celebration of the mundane weirdness of commonplace photography.
The entire project consist of 726 panels, the book includes a selection of 53 panels.
2014 (the 2013 print-on-demand edition is discontinued)
digital print, colour
21 x 14.8 cm, 56 pages
softcover, saddle-stitched
50 copies

Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts

The photographic project Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts (People of the Twentieth Century) began as an experiment to see if there was any logic behind which newsworthy photographs make it to the front covers of newspapers, and how this may correspond with the diversity of photographs of the respective event. Created between August 1985 and March 1987, the final collection consists of fifteen booklets, each containing repetitive images of a particular person that, for some reason or another has made it onto the front covers of German newspapers.
The criterion for selecting the images was rigid; the photographs were only to be taken from a pre-chosen list of twenty German newspapers that were available in West-Berlin at the time; at least 50% of those newspapers had to feature the same person on their front cover for images to be selected.
Each newspaper has its own particular page in each booklet of compiled photographs. If one of the chosen newspapers did not publish an image of the respective person on its front cover, its respective page in the booklet is left blank.
The resulting booklets contain images that have been removed from their original context and presented without their relevant news stories. All photographs are (re-)printed in original size. Although some persons depicted are well-known, it is still the title of each book that gives the images some grounding. These include: The Civil Servant, The Physicist, The Artist, The Astronaut, The Goal Keeper, The Tennis Player, The Professor, The Princess, The Terrorist, The Actor, The Diplomat, The Writer, The Dissident, The Chancellor, and The Party Leader.
2013
digital print, colour
16 booklets, 29.7 x 21 cm, 24 pages each
softcover in box (32 x 24 x 4 cm)
25 copies

Bilderbuch

What do Elizabeth Taylor, a bicycle seat, Carlos the Jackal, a lobster, Silvio Berlusconi, and a toilet brush have in common? Nothing, except that their photographs all ended up in my archive of scanned printed matter gathered from around the world over four decades. Removed from their original news context and presented without any comment, this apparent random, unrelated series of images turns out to be a miscellaneous reflection of popular obsessions, fears and fantasies.
The book was made on the occasion of the Bilderbuch exhibition at Zephyr, Mannheim.
2012 in collaboration with Zephyr, Mannheim
digital print, colour
23 x 16 cm, 120 pages
softcover, sewn
250 copies

Vierzig Jahre

I have been collecting photographs for forty years. Some ended up in my works, others were discarded, and the rest I preserved in my collection despite not knowing what to do with them. The earliest of these survivors is a series of nineteen portraits reproduced in this book – portraits that have endured four continuous decades of sifting, disposal and preservation. There must be a reason for this.
2011
print on demand, colour
20 x 13 cm, 40 pages
softcover, perfect bound
open edition
12 €

Illustriertes Tierleben

Illustriertes Tierleben – Eine allgemeine Kunde des Tierreichs is a collection of images taken from a daily Berlin newspaper, all of which come from the animal related “human interest” articles that run in the “miscellaneous news” section of the paper. The pictures and relating stories illustrate the relationship between modern humans and fauna. The book includes a selection of 45 photographs, its title refers to Alfred Brehm’s famous Tierleben (Life of Animals), first published in 1863.
2010
digital print, colour
21 x 14.8 cm, 48 pages
softcover, saddle-stitched
100 copies
12 €

Faits divers

“Through photographs, the world becomes a series of unrelated, free-standing particles; and history, past and present, a set of anecdotes and faits divers. The camera makes reality atomic, manageable, and opaque. It is a view of the world which denies interconnectedness, continuity, but which confers on each moment the character of a mystery.” Susan Sontag, On Photography, 1977
Faits divers is a collection of non-sensational images taken from a Berlin tabloid newspaper. The images, along with the title of the photograph have been removed from their original context, enlarged and placed separate from their news story. The result is a view of how image and minimal text can reveal and hide the connecting story in equal measures. It makes comment about some of the mundane news stories that make it to print. The book includes the entire series of twelve photographs.
2014 (the 2009 print-on-demand edition is discontinued)
digital print, b/w
21 x 14.8 cm, 20 pages
softcover, saddle-stitched
50 copies
8 €

The Face in the Desert

Portraits and Stories from the Daily Herald Archive. Education notes written by Jo Booth.
1999 by National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, Bradford
offset, b/w
29.7 x 21 cm, 24 pages
softcover, saddle-stitched

The Face in the Desert

Published by the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television on the occasion of an installation in Bradford city centre, the paper was distributed for free to visitors of the museum.
1999 by National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, Bradford
offset, colour
37 x 30 cm, 52 pages
10,000 copies

Sinterklaas ziet alles

A seemingly random collection of found images interspersed with short texts, collected and written on travels mostly in the Netherlands in 1997/1998. A book without a spine, it‘s like a blog before there were blogs.
1998 by Nederlands Foto Instituut, Rotterdam
offset, colour
180 A6 cards in a box (12 x 16 x 5 cm)
200 copies
ISBN 90 76085 08 0

Phantome

Reproductions of police drawings of wanted criminals with an insert list of various offenses that can be cut out and pasted to the picture of your choice.
1992 by Edition Fricke & Schmid
photocopy, b/w
21 x 14.8 cm, 36 pages
softcover
100 copies
ISBN 3 927365 22 X

Porträts

A collection of portraits of more or less well-known contemporaries with random factoid captions, collected from a Berlin tabloid.
1990 by Edition Fricke & Schmid
photocopy, b/w
21 x 14.8 cm, 36 pages
softcover
100 copies
ISBN 3 927365 17 3

Faits divers

Factual news photographs unfold an unintentional poetic character in combination with their deadpan captions.
1989 by Edition Fricke & Schmid
photocopy, b/w
14.8 x 21 cm, 36 pages
softcover
100 copies
ISBN 3 927365 08 4

Errata

Collected newsclippings featuring mistakes, typos, wrong captions and other errors.
1990 by Edition Fricke & Schmid
photocopy, b/w
21 x 14.8 cm, 38 pages
softcover
100 copies
ISBN 3 927365 09 2

Der Leser hat das Bild

Letters to the editor of a Berlin tabloid, published with photographs provided by the readers (including the artist and his various pseudonyms).
1988 by Edition Fricke & Schmid
photocopy, b/w
21 x 14.8 cm, 72 pages
softcover
100 copies
ISBN 3 927365 02 5

Bilderbuch (2011–2019)


^ Bilderbuch at NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, 2017


^ Bilderbuch at Zephyr Mannheim, 2012

Unique site-specific print installations based on an ongoing collection of printed matter, removed from the original context and presented without any comment.
Pigment ink prints, 40 x 30 cm each

Bilderbuch 1.0, 120 pages, Berlin/Mannheim 2012
Bilderbuch 1.1: 16 pages in Joachim Schmid e le fotografie degli altri (2012)
Bilderbuch 1.2: 23 pages in The Lazlo Reader: The Art of Remaking. Second Chances (2015)
Bilderbuch 2.0, 144 pages, Berlin 2017
Bilderbuch 2.1: 28 pages in Emic Units #39 (2023)

Illustriertes Tierleben (2010)

Illustriertes Tierleben is a collection of images taken from a daily Berlin newspaper, all of which come from the animal related “human interest” articles that run in the “miscellaneous news” section of the paper. The pictures and relating stories illustrate the relationship between modern humans and fauna.
Twenty-four pigment ink prints, 30 x 40 cm each

Schemen (2005)

A series of prints that are based on drawings that are based on photographs, taken from a Berlin tabloid newspaper.
Five pigment ink prints, 50 x 40 cm each, edition of 3 copies + 1 AP

The Face in the Desert (1999)

The Face in the Desert was a public art project commissioned by and realized in collaboration with the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford. The project consisted of both an installation in Bradford city center and a newspaper. The images used for this project were found in the museum’s vast Daily Herald newspaper archive.

Very Miscellaneous (1996)


^ Fabrica, Brighton, 11 October to 1 November 1997


^ Hasselblad Center, Konstmuseet Göteborg 1999


^ Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs 2007

Very Miscellaneous is based on the George Garland Collection and the archive of newspapers at the West Sussex Record Office. The work was commissioned by PhotoWorks as part of the Country Life series, curated by Val Williams.
Variable cluster of seventy b/w photographs, appr. 20 x 30 cm each.
Six portraits and six texts are available as diptychs (one portrait and one text in any combination; b/w prints, 36 x 24 cm each, edition of 3 copies + 1 AP).

Faits divers (1988/2006)



Faits divers is a series of prints based on factual news photographs that unfold an unintentional poetic character in combination with their deadpan captions.
Twelve b/w photographs, 30 x 40 cm each. The series was reprinted in 2006 (pigment ink prints, 40 x 50 cm each, edition of 3 copies + 1 AP).
A catalogue is available in the series of white books.

Archiv (1986–1999)


^ Archiv #1, 1986


^ Archiv #74, 1988


^ Archiv #103, 1990


^ Archiv #190, 1992


^ Archiv #227, 1992


^ Archiv #248, 1992


^ Archiv #253, 1992


^ Archiv #266, 1992


^ Archiv #317, 1993


^ Archiv #606, 1994


^ Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery,
Saratoga Springs 2007

Archiv is an analytical survey of international vernacular photography through the course of 20th century consisting of assortments of images – snapshots, studio photos, postcards, commercial photos, photos of missing people, newspaper images – grouped and classified according to their similarity on panels. The panels highlight the mechanical uniformity and conformity of image production, the collective patterns and rituals of popular photographic representations. The project is a history, a commentary, and a celebration of the mundane weirdness of commonplace photography.
The project consists of 726 panels, 40 x 50 cm each.
146 panels were in the traveling exhibition ⟩Knipsen⟨. Private Fotografie in Deutschland von 1900 bis heute (Taking Snapshots. Amateur Photography in Germany from 1900 to the Present). They are now in the archive of Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart.
580 panels are in the collection of The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY.
A catalogue is available in the series of white books.