Books: Andreas Gursky

Our admiration for the German photographer knows no bounds, so this new volume of Gursky's work, issued to accompany an exhibition at Basel’s Kunstmuseum, is especially welcome.

Perhaps more than any other artist, Gursky has successfully blurred the boundaries between photography and painting, using a hidden arsenal of digital techniques, intense research and total immersion to create his vast tableaux of human and natural life.

The elevation of the everyday into the epic is set into sharp relief by his celebrated images of the Arirang Festival in North Korea, where the concept of the individual has been totally subsumed by political theatre.

7 May 2008 | Art