Wolfgang Tillmans: A Reader is a panoramic collection of interviews and writings from an artist for whom language has always been a significant means of creative expression. Arranged chronologically, the assembled texts reflect Tillmans’s thinking on photography, music, politics, nightlife, astronomy, spirituality, and activism. The sources are as varied as their content, with statements and conversations that originally appeared in exhibition catalogues rubbing up against social-media posts and song lyrics. Whether discussing his own work as a photographer or drawing out the thoughts of others, Tillmans is a generous interlocutor with a refreshing clarity of thought.

 

This visually rich and timely publication tracks Tillmans’s contributions to art and cultural criticism in tandem with the social and cultural shifts of the past thirty years. 352 pp.; 100 illus.