The Ecstasy of Things

The 20th century was a century of things, both those artistically created and mass-produced. Originally manufactured for one purpose or another, the things soon achieved their independence, becoming in the process harbingers of beauty, modernity, innovation. Beyond the material, they stimulate one’s fantasy, convey an image and demonstrate that even the carelessly discontinued piece can, after some time, experience a rebirth as a trash or cult object.

In The Ecstasy of Things, product photography reflects the world of things and puts them in the right light for designers, manufacturers and advertising agencies. The book collects photographs, which for the first time were unearthed from company and agency archives worldwide on behalf of the Winterthur photo museum and the Swiss photography foundation.

Rich in illustrations and annotations, this volume impressively shows, depending on the taste of the time and predominant aesthetics, how the emotional and symbolic content of a thing was represented. At the same time, the collection is a wealth of forms and a colorful compendium of design and a photographic history of the past century.