From 1974, [Gerhard] Steidl added political non-fiction to his program. In the early 1980s, he expanded into literature and selected art and photography books, and in 1989, he published his first paperback editions. [...] In 1996, Steidl finally decided to follow his passion for photography and to start his own internationally oriented photo book program.[6]
Gerhard Steidl still heads the company and is in charge of the production of every book. He endeavours to follow the preferences of the particular photographer for layout, paper, and binding, and insists on working with paper, because of the importance of the feel of the book and the difference between backlighting and reflected light. Printing, binding and all other work is done within a four-storey house on Düstere Strasse in Göttingen.[5]
The number of titles produced by Steidl is unusually large for an art publisher: about three hundred a year.[5]
Gerhard Steidl produces special editions, but prefers what he calls "'democratic books' or more 'prêt à porter' books", books that can freely be reprinted if the demand for them is sufficient.[5] Steidl held the worldwide rights to the work of Nobel Prize Laureate Günter Grass from 1993 until Grass's death.[11]
From 2009 to 2010, the Musée de l'Élysée (Lausanne) held an exhibition, The Fine Art and Craft of the Steidl Book, Lasting Impressions.[12][13]
In 2014, photographer Lawrence Schwartzwald sent 49 signed prints to Steidl for consideration in a proposed book project about New Yorkers reading.[17] The following year, Steidl informed Schwartzwald that the project would not go forward and promised to return the prints, but they were never returned. Schwartzwald sued in a German court, which in 2016 ruled in his favor and ordered Steidl to compensate him €65,000 for the missing works.[18]
Despite the dispute, Steidl later published Schwartzwald’s book The Art of Reading in 2018.[19]
12345Bill Kouwenhoven, "Off to see the wizard", British Journal of Photography, March 2010, pp.68–71. Reproduced here as "Welcome to Steidlville". Accessed 8 January 2011.
