An examination of European portraiture since the 1990s, this book shows how major changes in the continent’s political and societal realms have inspired photographers to capture a new identity—both collective and individual.

The 1990s saw a resurgence of the portrait genre of photography, especially in Europe, where the collapse of communism and the solidification of the European Union raised enormously important questions about national identity and shared historical and cultural values. This volume delves into this important development, featuring full-page reproductions of work by Rineke Dijkstra, Jurgen Teller, Thomas Ruff, Nikos Markou, Anders Petersen, Clare Strand, and others from dozens of countries around the continent. Taken as a whole, these portraits comprise a new genre—one that represented a break from postmodernist strategies and which allowed for experimentation and the exchange of ideas.