Ken Schles photographer

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The Geometry of Innocence, Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2001. Ostfilern-Ruit, Germany.

"An object lesson in bookmaking... adrenalizing." Chris Miller, European Photography

"Many frames of breathtaking quality." Frankfurter Rundschau

"The new work, by 40 year old American Ken Schles, is simply breathtaking. A photographic masterpiece." Photonews

"Schles, with »The Geometry of Innocence« succeeds in making a daring, sophisticated photo book, which the publisher has also produced with technical brilliance." Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger

"Endlessly breathless pictures alternate between trauma and trance, death & delirium." fotoMAGAZIN

"Destined to be a late-modern classic. ...Ken Schles is a poet." Modernrare.com



Twelve years after the legendary success of his first book of photographs, Invisible City, Ken Schles returns with his long-awaited project, The Geometry of Innocence. Schles' focus is on the relentless shifting of social structures and spaces that mark the urban landscape of today. His images form a kind of visual roller coaster, sending the viewer onto city streets and playgrounds, into pubs and bars, putting the viewer inside a police helicopter and taking them to death row, hospital rooms, and police interventions. While there is no story per se, this breathless sequence of pictures is condensed into thematic clusters, providing a spellbinding and almost physically palpable experience. The works in The Geometry of Innocence address and play upon the immediacy and relativity of meaning in the photographic image, creating a bold and highly nuanced artistic statement.

Click on the book for sample spreads. Read the essay by Ken Schles, Demeaner, which ran at the end of the book. That essay is also available in German here.


Currently out of print, copies may be found on the web here.