Charlie Chaplin. A Photo Diary

In 1999, a sensational discovery was made among the affects in the estate of Charlie Chaplin: an extensive photography archive consisting of thousands of of negatives and prints from the actor's life were discovered. Chaplin documented his life with a passionate enthusiasm: private photographs taken by his friends and family were collected and kept, along with more public photographs taken during the course of his career on movie sets and in studios. These are never-before-published images, and from this treasure trove the photographer Michel Comte has edited a sensitive photo album which shows a hitherto unknown Chaplin. Here, the trips around the world and the snapshots with colleagues, children, and grandchildren are brought to light; a new view of the iconic artist. The Unseen Chaplin presents an artist who was on stage throughout his life, whose private life as well as his public life was spent in the limelight. Opening in 1909, when he was 20 years old, and closing with a color photograph taken just prior to his death in 1977, this large-format volume, which includes an essay by Sophia Loren and statements by other friends from the film industry, will be a beautiful and fitting tribute to the life of one of the seminal entertainers in American history.

Michel Comte was born in 1954 in Zurich. In 1979, his photographs caught the eye of Karl Lagerfeld at "French Vogue", and soon after Comte's career took off. His work appears regularly in U.S., Italian, and German "Vogue", "L'Uomo Vogue", and "Vanity Fair", and commercial clients include GianFranco Ferre, Armani, Givenchy, Nine West, BMW, and Revlon to name a few. In 2000, Steidl published two books of his work, "Aiko T.", and "People and Places Without Name". He lives in New York City.