"In this one-of-a-kind collection, Peter Badge shows us the wonderful gifts that make Nobel Laureates unique - and how they help us connect our interesting differences to our common humanity." - President Bill Clinton The Nobel Prize is famous the world over; the personalities who receive it, however, are practically unknown. In 2000, the photographer Peter Badge was commissioned to shoot portraits of all living Nobel Laureates. Since then, he has travelled around the world in order to photograph physicists, medical scientists, economists, literati and peace activists. Over the years, he has met and photographed more than 400 Nobel Laureates: a mammoth project, which has been accompanied by many surprises. The meetings with the Nobel Laureates were often far more than mere photo shoots: Peter Badge met the laureates in their private surroundings and often in highly personal situations. He thus experienced unforgettable moments with the ingenious mathematician John Nash, whose life story became known worldwide through the film A Beautiful Mind, as well as dangerous journeys and such as the search for Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in Moscow without a valid visa. Peter Badge accompanied, among others, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate José Ramos-Horta, then President of Timor-Leste, on a state visit, and the neurophysiologist Linda Buck while she purchased her wedding dress. In Ingenious Encounters, he also tells of his meetings with Gabriel García Márquez, Barack Obama, Kim Dae Jung, Desmond Tutu, Günter Grass, Aung San Suu Kyi and many others. As with his internationally acclaimed photographs, Peter Badge also demonstrates with his amusing and compassionate stories his remarkable intuition for the essence and charisma of those he portrays, as well as for the profound depth of the moment. In collaboration with Sandra Zarrinbal, he has put together a highly personal and unusual travel experience report with previously unpublished photographs: a journey to the people whose ideas move the world. AUTHOR: Peter Badge was born in 1974 and studied Art History in Berlin. He initially worked as a free-lance photographer for various magazines and soon began developing his own projects. Choosing portraiture as his primary focus, Badge concentrated on famous artist personalities, scientists and politicians and created, among others, photographic series such as Men on the Moon - from Armstrong to Aldrin, Icons of Economy and Philanthropists. In 2000, Badge embarked on a long-term photographic project on Nobel Laureates, commissioned by the Deutsches Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of American History and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., in cooperation with the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings and the Foundation Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. Since then, this project has taken him all across the globe in order to shoot portraits of all living Nobel Laureates. Sandra Zarrinbal holds a doctorate in law and is a bestselling author, poet and ghost writer. Following her legal studies, the native of Münster worked as a judge, lawyer and specialist author in Berlin and Munich. The historical biography Der letzte Zeuge (Pendo/Piper 2008), which she co-authored, became an international non-fiction bestseller. Sandra Zarrinbal lives and works in Berlin. SELLING POINTS: ? An awe-inspiring photographic collection of the winners of the Nobel Prize; an emotive, thought-provoking and illuminating record of the personalities and minds behind this prestigious award ? Foreword by Bill Clinton
