Born in New Jersey in 1942, Henry Wessel has been awarded two Guggenheim fellowships and three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. His work is held in the permanent collections of major American, European and Asian museums. Wessel has worked with Steidl on seven previous publications of his work. He has exhibited extensively, including solo exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.