The promise of photography

The dynamic innovations that have taken place in photography in recent years are documented in some 212 original and important works by 135 artists, selected for reproduction in this volume. The extraordinary power of photography coupled with its versatile interaction with other genres has provided the impetus to amass one of the largest private photographic collections of our time, owned by Germany's DG BANK. In addition to "classical" photography, the photographic works of painters and sculptors are the focus of this unique collection, in which the diverse trends in contemporary art are concentrated and readily identifiable. Artists such as Gunther Forg, Gerhard Richter, Robert Rauschenberg, Magdalene Jetelova, and John Chamberlain have regarded photography as an indispensable supplement to their own pictorial language. Photography is also employed in conjunction with new media, however, by such artists as Anton Corbijn, Valie Export, and Marie-Jo Lafontaine. John Baldessari and Barbara Kruger use photography to examine the mass media critically. Excellent examples of digital techniques and conceptual movements complement this outstanding collection.