Publisher's Description
- Personal accounts of Nobel Laureates in their private lives
- Photographic works commissioned by the Deutsches Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of American History and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
“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
In 2000, portrait photographer Peter Badge was commissioned to shoot the portraits of all living Nobel Laureates. His project has taken him around the globe to the private settings of over 400 Laureates, including physicists, medical scientists, economists, literati (Gabriel García Márquez and Günter Grass) and peace activists (Aung San Suu Kyi and Barack Obama)
Badge was able to meet with his distinguished subjects from outside the public eye, thus giving him a distinct vantage point from which to photograph their portraits. Such experiences include his unforgettable moment with mathematician John Nash, whose life story became known worldwide through the film A Beautiful Mind, as well as his harrowing search for Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in Moscow without a valid visa.
Badge also accompanied, among others, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate José Ramos-Horta, then President of Timor-Leste, on state visits, and the neurophysiologist Linda Buck on a shopping trip for her wedding dress.
As with his internationally acclaimed photographs, Badge recounts his stories with grace and humour, delving into the psyche and charisma of those he portrays. In collaboration with Sandra Zarrinbal, he has put together a highly personal and unusual travel report with previously unpublished photographs. The result is a journey of ideas through the people who form them.