Algeria

Add to My Reading List

Dirk Alvermann

Steidl, Göttingen, Germany, 2012, English

Nonfiction, Photography

4x7 inches, paperback, 224 pages

ISBN: 9783869302553

Suggested Retail Price: $28.00

From the Publisher. When he went to Algeria in the 1950s Dirk Alvermann was only eighteen, a rebellious West German teenager thrilled by the struggle for freedom by the Algerian people against French colonial rule. Together with a unit of the Algerian liberation army, he found a way to cross the hermetically sealed border from Tunisia into the Eastern Algerian war zone, determined to keep a photographic record of the events that were unfolding there.

After his return to West Germany he set about planning the publication of his work in the most accessible form available. The book should go from hand to hand like a political manifesto. In 1950 German publishing house Rowohlt had introduced its pocket book series, known by the name rororo – an ideal format for the book Alvermann intended to produce. At first, Rowohlt agreed to publish the book but later canceled it when any partisanship with the Algerian resistance seemed inappropriate. The book was finally published by the East-Berlin publishing house Rütten & Loening in 1960 as a hardcover, contrary to Alvermann’s own vision for the project. Steidl’s new edition of this important and classic book gives voice to the artist’s original intentions, adopting the rororo format and softcover finish. The photographs are accompanied by historical documents, quotes taken from French military sources, and from pamphlets, newspapers and magazines.

More than fifty years after its first publication, the book is as relevant as ever as it tells the story of a people rising up against oppression and despotism: against European colonialism or, like today, against homemade dictatorial regimes.

comments powered by Disqus

Announcements

Now is Better by Stefan Sagmeister

Now is Better

By Stefan Sagmeister
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: October 2023

Combining art, design, history, and quantitative analysis, transforms data sets into stunning artworks that underscore his positive view of human progress, inspiring us to think about the future with much-needed hope.

Order the book.

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future

By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022

Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.

Order the book.

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People by Debbie Millman

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People

By Debbie Millman
Publisher: Harper Design
Published: February 22, 2022

Debbie Millman—author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast “Design Matters”—showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.

Order the book.

Milton Glaser: POP by Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber

Milton Glaser: POP

By Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2023

This collection of work from graphci design legend Milton Glaser’s Pop period features hundreds of examples of the designer’s work that have not been seen since their original publication, demonstrating the graphic revolution that transformed design and popular culture.

Order the book.

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall

By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022

Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”

Order the book.

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition) by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition)

By Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher: Letterform Archives Books
Published: October 2023

This facsimile edition of Die Fläche, recreates every page of the formative design periodical in full color and at original size, accompanied by essays that contextualize the work, highlighting contributions by pathbreaking women, innovative lettering artists, and key practitioners of the new “surface art,” including Rudolf von Larisch, Alfred Roller, and Wiener Werkstätte founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.

Order the book.