Vitamin PH

PHAIDON PRESS

T.J. Demos and Editors of Phaidon Press

The Definitive Book on Photography Today; Featuring 121 Artists from Over 30 Countries. 

The life of an artistic medium lies in the capricious nature of the contemporary art market. Even the heavy-hitters - painting, sculpture and drawing - have fallen victim to this ebb and flow; declared dead one moment, only to be resurrected the next. Now it is photography's turn to contemplate its fate atop this precarious fence. Does it fall backward and play into the taunts that call photography an "obsolete" medium, so stretched and manipulated by its collaborations with other practices that it is rendered indefinable? Or, inspired by globalization, does it jump forward into distinction, with practitioners resuscitating the traditional form of the documentary image?

VITAMIN Ph: NEW PERSPECTIVES IN PHOTOGRAPHY, with an introduction by TJ Demos, is the definitive book on photography in the contemporary art world today. VITAMIN Ph is a global survey of new developments in the medium of photography, featuring 121 living artists who have made a contribution to the international art photography scene in the last five years.

In VITAMIN Ph, the featured artists are presented in A to Z order. For each artist, approximately five selections of work are reproduced alongside text by a critic who is a specialist on the artist's career. The surveys cover the artists' careers to date and explain the methods and subject matter featured in recent works.

Whether the style is documentary, deadpan, abstract, or portraiture; no matter that the artists are sculptors, video artists, painters, and photography has become a vital part of contemporary art. VITAMIN Ph is the only book of its kind to illustrate the up-to-the-minute complexity, variety and global spectrum of photography today.

The book follows the similar concept, scope and structure to Phaidon's successful volumes Vitamin P (2002), for painting, and Vitamin D (2005), for drawing. 

  • A global, up-to-the-minute survey of new developments in contemporary photography
  • Features the work of 121 living photographers who have made a fresh and innovative contribution to international art photography in the last five years, nominated by influential critics, curators and artists from around the world
  • Approximately 500 images depict the rich variety and current trends in the medium
  • Texts by significant critics, curators, art historians and creative writers representing a wide variety of perspectives
  • Both a reference for the art world and an accessible guide for those with an interest in photography at all levels

Including 121 artists from 40 different countries as selected by 79 curators, critics and established artists, Vitamin Ph includes the following artists: 

Armando Andrade Tudela, Alexander Apostól, Miriam Bäckström, Yto Barrada, Erica Baum, Valérie Belin, Walead Beshty, Rut Blees Luxemburg, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Frank Breuer, Olaf Breuning, Gerard Byrne, Elinor Carucci, David Claerbout, Anne Collier, Phil Collins, Kelli Connell, Eduardo Consuegra, Sharon Core, Rochelle Costi, Gregory Crewdson, Nancy Davenport, Tim Davis, Tacita Dean, Olafur Eliasson, Hans Eijkelboom, JH Engström, Lalla Essaydi, Roe Ethridge, Peter Fraser, Yang Fudong, Anna Gaskell, Simryn Gill, Anthony Goicolea, Geert Goiris, David Goldblatt, Katy Grannan, AES+F group, The Atlas Group/Walid Raad, Mauricio Guillen, Jitka Hanzlová, Anne Hardy, Rachel Harrison, Jonathan Hernández, Sarah Hobbs, Emily Jacir, Valérie Jouve, Yeondoo Jung, Rinko Kawauchi, Annette Kelm, Idris Khan, Joachim Koester, Panos Kokkinias, Luisa Lambri, An-My Lê, Tim Lee, Nikki S Lee, Zoe Leonard, Armin Linke, Sharon Lockhart, Vera Lutter, Florian Maier-Aichen, Malerie Marder, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Gareth McConnell, Scott McFarland, Ryan McGinley, Trish Morrissey, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Zanele Muholi, Oliver Musovik, Kelly Nipper, Nils Norman, Catherine Opie, Esteban Pastorino Díaz, Paul Pfeiffer, Sarah Pickering, Peter Piller, Rosângela Rennó, Mauro Restiffe, Robin Rhode, Sophy Rickett, Noguchi Rika, Andrea Robbins/Max Becher, Ricarda Roggan, Anri Sala, Dean Sameshima, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Markus Schinwald, Gregor Schneider, Collier Schorr, Josef Schulz, Paul Shambroom, Ahlam Shibli, Yinka Shonibare, Efrat Shvily, Santiago Sierra, Paul Sietsema, Alex Slade, Sean Snyder, Alec Soth, Heidi Specker, Hannah Starkey, Simon Starling, John Stezaker, Clare Strand, Darren Sylvester, Guy Tillim, Nazif Topçuoglu, Danny Treacy, Fatimah Tuggar, Céline van Balen, Annika von Hausswolff, Bettina von Zwehl, Deborah Willis, Sharon Ya'ari, Catherine Yass, Shizuka Yokomizo, Amir Zaki, Liu Zheng, Tobias Zielony 

With and introduction by TJ Demos and individual texts about the artists by Rodrigo Alonso, Thomas Boutoux, Isolde Brielmaier, Stuart Comer, Dina Deitsch, TJ Demos, Frits Giertsberg, Mark Godfrey, Catherine Grant, Alison Green, Katerina Gregos, Rachel Haidu, Jens Hoffmann, Michael Ned Holte, Ana Finel Honigman, Vincent Honoré, Vasif Kortun, Sarah Lewis, Roxana Marcoci, Dominic Molon, Shamim M Momin, Jessica Morgan, Jonathan Napack, Sally O'Reilly, Tetsuya Ozaki, Bethany Pappalardo, Alona Pardo, John Reed, Catsou Roberts, Jose Roca, Barry Schwabsky, Brian Sholis, Luke Skrebowski, Kerstin Stremmel, Margaret Sundell, Gloria Sutton, Nato Thompson, Sarah Thornton, Grant Watson, Axel Wieder