Document

Document is Henry Leutwyler's book of close-up photographs of objects that belonged to well-known figures or stand for famous events.

The objects include Mahatma Gandhi's sandal, Alan Shepard's golf club, Janis Joplin's acoustic guitar and Jack Ruby's handgun. Each is photographed straight on with no backdrop, unrestored, its scuffs and wear left showing. Steidl's text says the approach sits between still life, portraiture and crime-scene photography, and that the project took ten years. Steidl published it in October 2016 as a clothbound hardback of 208 pages and 123 images, printed in four-color process, with English text. Leutwyler showed Document at Foley Gallery in New York in 2016 and, with Neverland Lost, at The Mass Gallery in Tokyo in 2017.

Leutwyler is self-taught. His father and grandfather were both printers, and he chose to travel and photograph instead. After failing the entrance exam at a Swiss photography school twice, he opened his own studio in Lausanne. His other Steidl titles include Ballet: Photographs of the New York City Ballet, Hi there!, Philippe Halsman: A Photographer's Life and Misty Copeland.