Steidl: Disrespect your own Photographs

& Fuck the midtones.

Renowned German photobook publisher Gerhard Steidl gave a short Q&A session last night after the screening of his “How To Make A Book With Steidl” documentary at The Substation, Singapore. Gerhard was surprisingly unassuming for a man many call the single most important figure in publishing in the last decade. He is publisher to the who’s who of photography including Dayanita Singh, Rinko Kawauchi, Robert Frank, Martin Parr, Trent Parke, and William Eggleston.

Someone in the audience asked Gerhard who the single most satisfying photographer he had worked with and why. He replied “Without a doubt, Robert Frank. I learnt a lot from him. Robert said photographers these days are too respectful of their own photos. Disrespect your own photographs in order to create something new and inspiring.”

The other quote of the night was “Fuck the mid tones”.