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Todd Hido's Favorite Books of 2024

Ein Dorf 1950 – 2022 — Ute Mahler, Werner Mahler & Ludwig Schirmer.   Published by Hartmaan Books.

Another book involving multiple generations of interconnected photographers: Ein Dorf focuses on photographing one German village, Berka, over 70 years. Ludwig Schirmer, a local miller with a passion for photography, documented the village where he lived from 1950–60. Werner Mahler, his young apprentice at the time, continued photographing Berka in 1977–78, and then again in 1998, eventually marrying Schirmer's daughter, Ute Mahler. Ute, in turn, continued (and enriched) her father's project by photographing the people of the village in 2021–22 (many of them descendants of her father's original photographic subjects), with work as timeless as her father's.

Like Soft Eyes, it is curious to see three photographers retrace and close these circles of time, creating a well-crafted, almost accidental collaboration that in this case also functions as a family album of sorts.


Todd Hido (born in Kent, Ohio, 1968) wanders endlessly, taking lengthy road trips in search of imagery that connects with his own memories. Through his unique landscape process and signature color palette, Hido alludes to the quiet and mysterious side of suburban America—where uniform communities provide a stable façade, implying the instability that often lies behind the walls.

Hido has published more than a dozen books, including the award-winning monographs House Hunting (2001) and Excerpts from Silver Meadows (2013). He returned to the cinematic landscape photography that he first explored with Roaming (2003), as well as in Bright Black World (2018), and followed it up with The End Sends Advance Warning (2024). Hido is also an avid photobook collector, and over the last 30 years has created a notable collection of over 8,500 titles.

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