Peter Shire's Grand Tour

Peter Shire’s Grand Tour: A Snapshot of Design History, 1980–1989, edited by Christoph Radl, is a deeply personal photo diary chronicling the decade of Memphis—‘the last design revolution’, headed by maestro Ettore Sottsass, the leaning tower of Italian design. Peter didn’t know it at the time, but his snapshots of Italy in the ‘80s (with a sidequest to Vienna) were the serendipitous beginning, middle, and end of something big. Peter Shire’s Grand Tour pairs candid pictures with personal interludes to trace the heady, unpolished brilliance of a movement before it knew what it was. With the unwitting eye of a tourist-turned-historian, Peter’s camera captured it all—from Caravaggio at the Uffizi to storefronts of women’s lingerie shops and beautiful sunsets, alongside rogue selfies and a cast of Memphis Group legends including Ettore Sottsass, Alessandro Mendini, and Matteo Thun.