s Fall / Winter 06 07 - Steidl

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Bodo von Dewitz (ed.)
Beauty, Power, Vanity
Photographs from the Prince Ernst August of Hanover Collection
Royal collections have always been a powerful means of self-promotion. For centuries painting was largely sustained
by royal patronage and facilitated the permanent and glamorous representation of eminence. Then along came photography,
which immediately assumed the same function, and portraits of nobility lost their exclusivity when everyone
could afford photographs.
Nonetheless the royal court around the Welfen dynasty in Hanover let itself be photographed repeatedly. The royals
contracted photographers, gave away pictures and in return received photographs which they placed in albums and
portfolios until they had an extensive collection. This collection, still in the possession of Prince Ernst August of
Hanover, survived the collapse of the royal families and is contained in this book.
Photographs served nobility not least of all by safeguarding their dominance. Family relations were politically significant
European networks and photography consolidated those relationships. This collection of photographs is an informative
historical source and a spirited reflection of a lost epoch.
Bodo von Dewitz, born in 1950, has been the director of the Agfa Foto-Historama at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne
since 1985.
Beauty, Power, Vanity
Photographs from the Prince Ernst
August of Hanover Collection
Edited and with an essay by Bodo von Dewitz
Book design by Gerhard Steidl
224 pages with 180 color plates
9.4 x 12.9 in. / 24 x 33 cm
Clothbound hardcover with dust jacket
US $ 60.00 / £ 35.00 / E 48.00
ISBN 3–86521–235–2
ISBN-13 978-3-86521-235-1
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