Jean Baudrillard

Jean Baudrillard is one of France's leading modern-day philosophers and greatly influenced contemporary art, especially in the eighties and early nineties. Around 12 years ago he started taking photographs on his travels; for the past 6 years or so he has concentrated intensively on photography. But there is no direct link between his artistic work and his philosophy. On the contrary, he takes photos of things he doesn't want to comment on, and leaves the things he photographs out of his written work. For the first time, this book presents Baudrillard's photos together with his collected texts on the theory of photography. In his pictures he strolls through the world of objects, looking for insignificant and arbitrary things. According to Peter Weibel, the laconic nature of things is the reason for their beauty, and Baudrillard photographs this beauty in a laconic way - without the pathos of history, without the constructed objectivity or staging of art photography. His photographic glance literally rests on the surface of the objects and celebrates their appearance for the eye.