“THESE PHOTOGRAPHS WILL LEAVE YOU SPEECHLESS”: FIRST EDITION OF MICHAEL SCHMIDT’S WAFFENRUHE
SCHMIDT, Michael and SCHLEEF, Einar. Waffenruhe (Cease Fire). (Berlin): Dirk Nishen, (1987). Tall, slim quarto, original photographic self-wrappers.
First edition of this striking photo-essay on the Berlin Wall, with 39 rich full-page duotones (one gate-folded).
"Like much of Michael Schmidt's work, Waffenruhe (Ceasefire) is about Berlin… autumnal, dark, Schmidt does not employ the objective materiality of the traditional Social Landscape mode, but imposes a distinctly contemporary, updated, picturesque" approach in which "only the Wall—die Mauer— remains solid and potentially enduring" (Parr & Badger II:65). Schmidt "represents what is most promising about the New European photography. Working in a style that is impressionistic and seemingly casual, he fashions images that are simultaneously personal and political" (New York Times). As Martin Parr notes, "through Schmidt's dramatic perspective and keen eye for telling details and subtle nuances, he creates an air of inconsolable emptiness in his images of The Wall and those affected by it. These photographs will leave you speechless." Text in German. Open Book, 336.
Fine condition.