Born in Göttingen in 1950, Gerhard Steidl began working as a printer and designer in 1969. Soon the customers of his screen-printing workshop included Joseph Beuys, Marcel Broodthaers and Nam June Paik, among other well-known artists. In 1972, the first Steidl book Befragung der documenta (Questioning documenta) was published. From political non-fiction he then expanded into literature and selected books on art and photography.

Since 1993 Steidl has held the worldwide rights to the work of Nobel Laureate Günter Grass. Celebrating some of the most distinctive voices in contemporary writing, Steidl publishes German literature as well as translations from French, English and Icelandic, including the work of Nobel Laureate Halldór Laxness, Sebastian Barry, Edna O’Brien, Colin Barrett, Maeve Brennan and Véronique Bizot.

In 1994 Steidl launched its international photobook program. Today it includes some of the world’s most renowned photographers and artists including Joel Sternfeld, Bruce Davidson, Robert Frank, Robert Adams, Karl Lagerfeld, Lewis Baltz, Dayanita Singh, Ed Ruscha, Roni Horn and Juergen Teller, to name but a few.