J. Konrad Schmidt : seductive librarians in catalogue format, the former GDR's Philharmonic building, 6os fashion

No young farmers or handywomen – nope, this time things get up close and personal with some not so dusty female librarians. J.Konrad Schmidt photographed ‘Seitenblicke’ (Side Glances) – ‘the seductive bookshop calendar’, published by Heye (KV+H).

According to a study by GFK from 2009, the book trade is regarded as rather dowdy and unsexy. Simone Pfeifer, book trader in her own right, was outraged and fought for her idea: a calendar, featuring seductive images of female book traders, accompanied by suitably erotic quotes from the world of literature.

“We are not producing nude pictures, we present subtle literature-inspired erotica”, Pfeifer stated in an interview at the Frankfurter book fair, during the official presentation of the calendar. The gargantuan media interest even surprised the publisher's CEO. The calendar is in its third edition already.

Hand-picked literary quotes from Casanova, Friedrich Schlegel*, Heinrich Heine, Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach and Oscar Wilde accompany the atmospheric and sensual black & white photographs. The shoots took place in Vienna, Düsseldorf, Karlsruhe, Berlin and on the Danish island of Rømø in the North Sea.

‘Seitenblicke – Der verführerische Kalender des Buchhandels 2011’; 34,00 x 44,00 cm. € 19,95 (ISBN 978-3-8401-1065-8)

J. Konrad photographed a philharmonics building in the former GDR only days before its scheduled demolition in September, as commissioned by 'HORIZONTE', an initiative of the Bauhaus University Weimar and its students. The production's focus lay on the ephemeral nature of contemporary architecture. The resulting pictures are pervaded with a nightmarish silence and emptiness. A few days later, no stone was left unturned at the production's location. Witness true evanescence of endless metres of black and white film.

Things stayed just as analogue when it came to a studio production using classic Polaroid photography. A series was created in the spirit of the 1960s. An intimate series was also produced featuring the seductive Alina.