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Today, with Google Earth available on every device, seeing the world from above is part of everyday life. Yet in the 1980s, it was a novelty to see one’s own home from a bird’s-eye view, and people bought such photos to enjoy the different perspective on their own homes.
This is how the archive that Peter Piller used for the publication *Von Erde schöner* [The Most Beautiful on Earth] came to be: 12,000 photographs taken between 1979 and 1983 and sold door-to-door by a shrewd businessman. They depict the dreary, conventional, often generic, and sometimes overly personalized homes of German homeowners. Working with this enormous collection of aerial photos—a task Piller described as a journey into his own past—he selected 300 photos, grouping them by similarities and creating a subtle narrative thread throughout the book.
Oscillating between comedy and sad reality, these revealing photographs do more than simply take us on a journey into the past: they succeed in capturing the raw, everyday lives of real people. Moreover, thanks to the artist’s curation, they bear witness to the striking similarity in their behavior: from the similar construction methods of the houses themselves and the cars, to the pedantically laid garden tiles, the less-than-useful mini-pools, or the unsightly excavations.
Since the first edition is rare and highly sought-after, we are now pleased to present a new edition published by Verlag Bernd Detsch. Not only has it been revised and produced to a higher standard thanks to advanced printing technology, but the artist himself insisted that it be reprinted.
Published by Verlag Bernd Detsch, 2017
317 pages
28.5 x 28.5 cm
ISBN 978-3-940602-07-7
Today, with Google Earth available on every device, seeing the world from above is part of everyday life. Yet in the 1980s, it was a novelty to see one’s own home from a bird’s-eye view, and people bought such photos to enjoy the different perspective on their own homes.
This is how the archive that Peter Piller used for the publication *Von Erde schöner* [The Most Beautiful on Earth] came to be: 12,000 photographs taken between 1979 and 1983 and sold door-to-door by a shrewd businessman. They depict the dreary, conventional, often generic, and sometimes overly personalized homes of German homeowners. Working with this enormous collection of aerial photos—a task Piller described as a journey into his own past—he selected 300 photos, grouping them by similarities and creating a subtle narrative thread throughout the book.
Oscillating between comedy and sad reality, these revealing photographs do more than simply take us on a journey into the past: they succeed in capturing the raw, everyday lives of real people. Moreover, thanks to the artist’s curation, they bear witness to the striking similarity in their behavior: from the similar construction methods of the houses themselves and the cars, to the pedantically laid garden tiles, the less-than-useful mini-pools, or the unsightly excavations.
Since the first edition is rare and highly sought-after, we are now pleased to present a new edition published by Verlag Bernd Detsch. Not only has it been revised and produced to a higher standard thanks to advanced printing technology, but the artist himself insisted that it be reprinted.
Published by Verlag Bernd Detsch, 2017
317 pages
28.5 x 28.5 cm
ISBN 978-3-940602-07-7
