Publisher's Description
For six years, Jason Schmidt has traveled all over
the world, to biennials, fairs, far-flung locations
and home studios, photographing artists in their
natural environments. This, his first book, is an intimate
glimpse into the creative processes of some
of his most important and exciting colleagues,
accompanied by texts in their own words. Schmidt,
whose work has appeared in The New York Times
Magazine, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar and The New
Yorker, makes no pretense of forging a coherent
international contemporary art scene—he’s more
interested in cataloguing its heterogeneity. His
subjects include painters (Laura Owens, Luc
Tuymans), photographers (Thomas Demand, Philip-
Lorca diCorcia), video artists (Doug Aitken, Bill
Viola), sculptors (Liz Larner, Marc Quinn), installation
artists (Maurizio Cattelan, Gregor Schneider)
and those who defy the categorical imperative of
medium (Sophie Calle, Paul McCarthy). Each portrait
is its own self-contained world, full of the
mythology, symbols and methodology that inform,
and ultimately become, the subject’s art.