This morning we got up at 6:30 a.m. and prepared to go next door by 7:30 a.m., as prescribed yesterday by Gerhard, but he called us at 7:20 and said to meet him in the Print Shop because they were ready for us! Needless to say, we grabbed our things and dashed next door for our first full day of printing. There we met Andreas and Arne who were our printers on the first shift.

Gerhard came in and immediately began checking the first press sheets. He calibrated the presses. He made some adjustments electronically with a tool that reads the color bars along the bottom of the sheet. It tells how much of each ink is being put on. They run the tri-tone, a black, and a couple of grays, the gold, then the varnish. The specs and instructions were taped up on the enormous printer!

We watched as the first sheet came off the press. It was photos from Ruth-Marion Baruch’s section. We checked them and thought they looked beautiful. It’s incredible how well Steidl is able to achieve the quality he does, He has made it his life’s passion to be the best printer he can be, and he really shines when you see him in action.

We went back up to the library and Gerhard brought us the front and back cover. We had to come up with a small paragraph of text for the back cover right away, describing what the book is about.

We spent most of the day in the library waiting for a call from the Press Room to come down and approve the latest press sheet. Each sheet took about 45 minutes, so while the book is on the press, we need to stay nearby.

We ran into Robert Polidori in the Print Room at the 2nd Press Check at about 9:20. It was a nice coincidence as we’d met him last time we were here in July and had dinner with him and his wife and daughter on Ken’s Birthday. If you haven’t seen his photography before, it’s wonderful, we highly recommend it. We then went upstairs to meet with Victor about the cover. We approved everything.

We met Nadine, who organizes exhibitions among her other duties at Steidl.

We will now try to get some sleep. Meant to add more pictures but can’t keep eyes open! The presses will be running all night. There are 35 signatures in the book and when we left this evening, 14 had been done, on the first side only. We might have to go in the Print Shop during the night, we don’t know. For now we will sign off – !

Much Love,

Gute Nacht!

Victoria & Ken