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Swiss Photobooks from 1927 to the Present is the first comprehensive, trilingual, overview of the major publications that influenced Swiss photography in the 20th century. Seventy historic photographic books are introduced alongside numerous images, interpreted by expert specialists. The selected works offer a framework for a fresh look at the development of photographic styles and forms of expression, from the beginnings of modern photographic books in the 1930s to their ascendance in the present day. In-depth summaries covering the various epochs as well as a bibliography complement the chronologically laid-out essays on the individual publications.

Albert Steiner was one of the finest Swiss photographers of the twentieth century. Like Ansel Adams, he favored imposing natural phenomena, landscapes with what might be called good bone structure, (in his case the Alps, in Adams's comparable work, the American West), and he printed his vision of them in black-and-white, revealing nature in all its majesty. His impressive scenic work has fundamentally shaped the world's perception of Switzerland as an alpine country of timeless beauty. It spans the period from before World War I--an era of pictorially inspired images that look like oil paintings--to the straightforward and elegantly modern photography of the 1930s. Unlike many other photographers of the same generation active in the same area, Steiner saw photography as a completely appropriate means of creating works of art, and considered himself an artist.