Both photography and books share the qualities of being easily mass-produced and widely circulated. The publication of photobooks is not only a creative practice that demonstrates craftsmanship comparable to fine art, but also, by combining the unique characteristics of both media, holds tremendous potential to advance the democratization of art.
This keynote speech pays tribute to American photography master Robert Frank and features German master art publisher Gerhard Steidl as the speaker. It will focus on their collaborative relationship and explore how the photobook functions both as an artwork and as a democratic object, transcending the paradoxical definitions and conceptual frameworks surrounding photographic originals, and enabling photographic art to reach a broader audience.
＊For the full program, please refer to the “Summit” page.
Keynote Speaker｜Gerhard Steidl
Born in 1950 in Göttingen, Germany, Gerhard Steidl founded his publishing house and screen-printing workshop for graphic art and posters in 1969. Today Steidl publishes the largest worldwide program of contemporary photobooks and a select literature list in German.
He furthermore conceives and curates international exhibitions. In 2020 Steidl became the first non-photographer to receive the Outstanding Contribution to Photography prize at the Sony World Photography Awards, and was awarded the Gutenberg Prize by the International Gutenberg Society in Mainz. In 2021 he received the Grand Cross of Merit of Lower Saxony, and the publishing house the Deutscher Verlagspreis (German Publishers Award).
Steidl is the initiator and founding director of Kunsthaus Göttingen, which opened in June 2021. In 2022 Steidl was guest lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hildesheim, Germany. In 2023 he ranked among the Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung’s “50 Most Important Germans in Fashion” and held the Richard Benson Lecture on the Reproduced Image at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. In August 2023 Steidl was appointed a full member of the German Photographic Society.
In 2024 he curated Jim Dine’s exhibition Dog on the Forge at the Palazzo Rocca as part of the Venice Biennale, and Steidl Book Culture. Magic on Paper at Ground Seesaw Seochon, Seoul, South Korea. Furthermore in 2024, Steidl received the Cultural Award from the German Photographic Society.
Moderator｜Liang-Pin Tsao
Liang-Pin Tsao, a native of Hsinchu, Taiwan, is engaged in artistic projects, organizational management, and public services. In 2016, he founded the Lightbox Photography Library to preserve, research, and promote photography in Taiwan. In 2025, he established the first Taiwan International Photography Festival to enhance public understanding of Taiwanese photography and encourage the democratization of art. His first photography book, Sojourn, was published in Taiwan in 2015. His second book, Becoming・Taiwanese, will be released by Akaaka in Japan in 2025.