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About 21ST
21ST Editions started in 1998 as 21ST: The Journal of Contemporary Photography. The original mission
of the press was to broaden the dialogue of contemporary fine art photography by bringing together the
widest variety of photographic work with the finest international writers, poets, and essayists. The six volumes
of the Journal published between 1998 and 2002 represent an astonishing survey of artistic visions and literary
voices, revealing current thoughts on photography from a unique range of critical, intellectual, and historical
points of view.
Following the critical acclaim received as early as 1999 (The Wall Street Journal), the press expanded its
offerings in 2000 to include fine press, handmade monographs on the work of various photographers to serve
as a complement to its Journal anthologies. Each of these hand-crafted monographs are illustrated with original
signed photographs. They incorporate new writing by the artists themselves, leading contemporary historians,
critics, poets, novelists, and philosophers. 21ST Editions has also published the works of such classic writers
as Pindar, Han Shan, Shakespeare, Blake, Baudelaire, Whitman, Apollinaire, Rilke, and others, including
contemporary poets.
21ST Editions titles have been acquired by over 50 U.S. and international museums and special collections
libraries, including the Library of Congress, the Chapin Memorial Library, the Getty Museum, the Museum
of Modern Art, Cornell University, Stanford University, Rochester Institute of Technology, the Boston
Athenaeum, the Ransom Center (Austin) the George Eastman House, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the
British Library, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and others.
In 2009 the press established its Legacy Editions imprint. While 21ST Editions focuses on the creation of fine
art photography titles, Legacy Editions was established to survey the broader horizons of history, art, and culture.
Both imprints are committed to the mission of revitalizing the centuries old art of fine book making, with the goal
of making each volume an object of beauty that reflects the highest standards of craftsmanship and artistic and
cultural significance.