Work

Work was the first book to bring together Mitch Epstein’s photographs from across his career, so that early and recent projects can be read against each other.

It is organised by project: Common Practice (1973–89), Vietnam (1992–95), The City (1995–98), Family Business (2000–03) and American Power, then still in progress. Each chapter is introduced by a short essay by Epstein or an excerpt from his earlier writing. His early pictures of recreation sit alongside photographs from other parts of the world, and many of the images had not been published before. A DVD of his film Dad comes with the book. It has 272 pages, is clothbound and in English, and was co-produced with Die Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur in Cologne. Steidl published the first edition in October 2006.

Epstein has photographed the landscape and culture of America for half a century. Two of the projects in Work became books of their own: Family Business (2004), which won the Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award, and American Power (2009).