Wolfgang Tillmans: 3 Vols.

Those familiar with Wolfgang Tillman’s photographs will be aware of his status as metaphorical anvil on which other, newer artist-photographers choose to sharpen themselves up against. Published by TASCHEN, Tillmans’ three significant photobooks, Tillmans, Burg and truth study centre have been collected into 3 Vols., an extraordinary “high-colour dirty realist heaven…”

Collected together, the books visually describe his destiny to remain on some perpetual zeitgeist apogee that has never seen him totally disappear from any quarter of the photography field. With vast amounts of landscape, ribald portraiture, fashion, still-life and installations (“undermining the genres with every shot”), the work included in these books follows his professional trajectory including early work for Ray Gun and winning the Turner Prize in 2000. It’s a compelling lot and has been designed by the man himself.