In the Beginning: Anselm Kiefer & Photography

This book was published on the occasion of Anselm Kiefer: La photographie au commencement at Lille Métropole Musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut, Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France. The exhibition, whose title translates to Photography at the Beginning, is the first retrospective to focus on Kiefer’s work in the medium. This underrecognized aspect of his practice has been central to the artist’s work from the late 1960s through the present. Featuring more than 130 works, the exhibition charts Kiefer’s relationship with photography and his investigations into what images reveal.

The catalogue includes reproductions of the exhibited works and essays by leading Kiefer scholars. A foreword by curator Sébastian Delot and an essay by Heiner Bastian introduce the exhibition, while Jean de Loisy contextualizes Kiefer’s photography within his larger practice and Christian Weikop interprets the Besetzungen (Occupations) series. Additionally, Grégoire Prangé contributes an extensive chronology including an analysis of the artist’s photographic subjects and materials.