Silent Portraits
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Seltmann Publishers GmbH
Published:16th Sep '25
Should be back in stock very soon

On over 300 pages of this high-quality photography collection, you will encounter the fascinating world of meditation. How does an inner journey begin to take form, manifesting as a silent communication? In his photographic homage to the beauty and power of meditation, Axel Kirchhoff answers this question simply: by looking. This mindful pause is also the starting point for encountering the 66 protagonists who, in various forms, reveal their process of inner work.
Silent Portraits is a collection of quotes and portraits from a diverse range of protagonists. Alongside the silent yet vibrant black-and-white photographs, the protagonists provide personal descriptions of their approaches and experiences with inner work. Insights into the effects of mental exercise, drawn from conversations with renowned author and neuroscientist Dr. Ulrich Ott from the Giessen Bender Institute of Neuroimaging (BION), round out the book. Text in English and German.
The book’s premise is simple yet profound. Each portrait is the result of a mindful encounter, a collaboration between Kirchhoff and his subject at rest, in stillness, or mid meditative practice.
The book is handsomely made, with printing that does justice to Kirchhoff’s luminous monochrome palette. There is a timeless quality to his portraits, echoes of August Sander’s typologies or Richard Avedon’s stripped-back studies but always rooted in the here and now, in the deeply personal practice of each subject.
Silent Portraits is an act of witness. It shows us that stillness can be powerful, that silence can speak volumes, and that the camera, whenguided by attentiveness, can capture the invisible work of the mind.
* Amateur Photographer magaziISBN: 9783949070662
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
320 pages