The art book is an object to beheld time and again, a means to reflect on the world before us, a meditation on that which we might not otherwise know were it not for the work, transporting us from the familiar to the foreign by dissolving three dimensions into two. It is through the lens of the photographer that we enter into this world, as they guide us through an experience unlike any other we have ever known. It is through the creation of the book that we consider the single image as part of a larger understanding of story, idea, and meaning.
The art book carries us to far away lands, to years that have long gone by, into lives once lived that have become imprinted in ink on the page, the ephemeral eternal if only for now. Each publishing house has its own set of standards to which it adheres, a quality that becomes apparent when the whole is taken as the sum of its parts.
For the past two decades, Kehrer Verlag has defined itself as one of the premier book publishing houses by producing visually complex and challenging volumes that are as beautifully produced as they intellectually and emotionally provoke. Publisher and owner Klaus Kehrer made a name for himself supervising production for a German art and photography publisher with his own print shop for several years. In the early 1990s, he became an independent producer and designer for various art and photo publications, among them many exhibition catalogs for major German museums. Having made himself a name in the business he decided to found his own publishing house
Kehrer Verlag now has a list that consists of some 700 titles, with 80 new volumes published every year, and a staff of fourteen, some of whom have been with Kehrer since the 1990s while younger members have stayed on after finishing their internship. As Mr. Kehrer notes, “Overall, employee turnover is low within the company. Everyone gets kind of addicted to making books.”
It is this addiction that makes every book on Kehrer’s list a pleasure to have and to hold. Each book is crafted to optimal effect, deftly engaging the medium itself to maximum effect. Whether it is About Girls, Gitta Seiler’s haunting expose that looks at girls whose young lives have gone tragically awry, or Inside Niger, Nicola Lo Calzo’s powerful portrait of preservation and pride, Kehrer presents a multi-faceted look at humanity in its many guises.
“Kehrer tries to increase an awareness for the visual book / photo book as an art object by carefully choosing paper, binding, and treatment of a cover. Each book photo book is a unique creation testifying to the constructive collaboration between respective partners—with consistently high technical and design quality as the unifying element,” Mr. Kehrer explains. “Usually the book is developed in close cooperation with the artist, and, just as the relationship between the Kehrer team and the artist develops, the book takes a shape that no one could have predicted—it truly becomes unique.”
From Saul Leiter, Harry Callahan, and Willy Ronis Rinko Kawauchi, Martin Parr, and Julius Shulman, the Kehrer list is sprinkled with rare gems that speak across the boundaries, reminding us that the art book is incredibly contemporary, despite the advent of the digital age. Mr. Kehrer notes, “We strongly believe that there is a consistent, if not growing, audience for visual / photo books. It may sound like a paradox, but this is enforced by globalized media, by the internet, by social media. We don’t see ebooks as a threat, because in our niche consumers want the real thing. They want to own and collect, they want to touch, turn the pages, appreciate quality printing on a paper, especially selected for this work.
“We notice that digital media itself has become a topic of visual books, sometimes in an affirmative, experimental ways, sometimes as a backlash or counter movement,” Mr. Kehrer observes. This cross-pollination of the media can be seen in Beth Lilly’s The Oracle @ Wifi. On the seventh day of every month, Beth Lilly’s cell phone rings. She stops everything she is doing and answers it. The person on the other end asks for a reading. Lilly takes three photos wherever she is, sends them to the callers, and they reply with their question. The result is The Oracle@WiFi, a collection of questions and answers the likes of which have never been seen before. The book is a story of faith, of the mysterious possibilities that occur all the time, of the seeming unlikeliness of the common unconsciousness that asserts itself over and over again.
Every book that Kehrer produces it its own study in faith, in the mysterious and limitless need to create, to explore, and to understand the world. Kehrer explains, “Our goal is to make this ‘work’ as a book and thus transport the emotion to an audience open to this unique experience.” Whether that occurs in a meditation of landscape of Chernobyl, of coal miners in the Ukraine, in portraits of people living with Alzheimer’s, or dogs sitting in cars all alone, every Kehrer book has its own distinct chemistry that comes from a deep and abiding love of the book, an addiction that escapes its pages and takes the viewer by the hand, gracefully guiding us into an at once foreign and familiar land.
Miss Rosen
