This inventory of the photographic collection of Museum Ludwig in Cologne will prove to be one of the standard works on photography of the 20th and 21st century. The volume positions contemporary photography as an essential part of contemporary art, contextualizes it historically and reconsiders the achievements of the early-twentieth-century avant-garde. Works by Man Ray, László Moholy-Nagy, August Sander, and others are juxtaposed by 74 projects from the period of 1959 to 2007.

This indispensable anthology is not only a comprehensive photo volume, but theoretically delineates the historical transformations of the medium, situated between photography and art, and between documentation and aesthetic construction.

Photographs by: John Baldessari, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Mel Bochner, Jan Dibbets, Rineke Dijkstra, William Eggleston, Valie Export, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Gilbert & George, Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Jürgen Klauke, Annie Leibovitz, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mapplethorpe, Gordon Matta-Clark, Bruce Nauman, Peter Piller, Thomas Ruff, Ed Ruscha, Gregor Schneider, Cindy Sherman, Thomas Struth, Wolfgang Tillmans, Jeff Wall, Christopher Williams and many others