Transit Book

Around the world in 1424 days: the epic voyage behind the making of the book 1000 Families Part travel journal, part scrapbook, this unique book traces the four-year, 250,000-km journey of photographer Uwe Ommer during the making of TASCHEN's 1000 Families. Called a ?family album of planet earth,—1000 Families is a vast collection of portraits taken by Ommer in over 130 countries in all corners of the world. Naturally, a voyage of such epic proportions bears its fair share of anecdotes, adventures, mishaps, and souvenirs, and Transit traces the experience via stories and images. From closed borders and broken bridges to late rainy seasons, curious customs officers, thieves, coups d??tat, raging fevers, and a far from ?unbreakable? Land Rover, Ommer found truth in the maxim ?just about everything that can go wrong, will.? This amusing and original compilation paints a vivid picture of what it's like to travel to the most remote corners of the globe for four years, meeting countless people and observing the great cultural and social similarities and differences that mark the human race. The photographer: Uwe Ommer was born in Bergisch-Gladbach, Germany, in 1943. Ommer became fascinated with photography at a young age and in 1962 moved to Paris, where he initially worked as a photographer's assistant. Within a few years, he opened his own photography studio, primarily shooting fashion and advertising photos. Quickly gaining respect for his work in Paris, Ommer began showing in local galleries and eventually published his first book Photoedition Uwe Ommer in 1979, a collection of personal and advertising works. In the following years, he would publish five more books of his photographs.In 1995, Ommer drastically changed gears and decided to embark on an ambitious project: to document all types of families on every continent at the turn of the millennium. Armed with a Landrover, Rolleiflex camera, portable studio, and one assistant, Ommer visited 130 countries in the following four years, interviewing and photographing over 1000 families. Returning to Paris in 2000, Ommer had an enormous collection of photographs illustrating the human ?family? in its current and diverse state. TASCHEN published 1000 Families in 2000, coinciding with the first public exhibition of the portraits, in Cologne. Since then, the exhibition has toured the world. In 2002, Uwe Ommer was awarded an Honorary Fellowship to the Royal Photographic Society for the impact of his lifetime of work.