“Why I was different from all the other boys in my town I cannot tell you. I was simply born with the gift of vision.” – ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER

Is there any better example of the American Dream than Arnold Schwarzenegger? What does it take to make your vision a reality? How do you cultivate iron focus to overcome any obstacle and realize your dreams?

On the publication of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s limited edition two-volume book published by TASCHEN, we sat down with Senior Editor and Writer Dian Hansen to discuss Schwarzenegger’s life, accomplishments, and history of unforgettable performances. The book has been a decade-long collaborative process and along with portraits by leading photographers Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, Robert Mapplethorpe, Herb Ritts, Francesco Scavullo, and Andy Warhol, it is also filled with photos from Arnold’s private archive and exclusive interviews. Dian’s other works include The Art of Pin-up, Masterpieces of Fantasy Art, and The Fantastic Worlds of Frank Frazetta.

"Benedikt Taschen, like myself, like Arnold, is a man without formal education. Benedikt started his business when he was 18 years old and opened a comic book store. He had been buying and selling trading comic books since the age of 15. He made the money himself to open a comic book store and then went into publishing right after that. And I said, 'Benedikt, when did you have time to go to college?' And he said, 'There was no time. I did not go.' And so people are tempted to call people like Benedikt, to call people like Arnold, to call people like me, self-made. But we are obviously not self-made. We are determined, and we use our determination to bring other people into our dream and our motivation to accomplish what we want. And so Taschen sees in Arnold himself and his own determination he sees in me, himself, and his determination. And so we all come together in that, you know, let's celebrate somebody that most people would not imagine was an art book subject. This has been Taschen all along. Oh, they make sex books. You know, that's not art. Well, Benedikt Taschen said to me at the time when he hired me, and he was trying to hire me since 1994, I said, 'Well, you know, I made porn magazines. Am I going to have to change everything I do to make art books?' And he said, no.

He said, 'I'm hiring you because I like what you do. We make good books. We put good art in our books. We put good sex material in our books. We do not put bad art in our books. We do not put bad sex material in our books. We do it good, and then it's art. And that is what we have done all along.' If you think Arnold is just some muscle guy, well go look in the book. Go see how Annie Leibovitz envisioned him. Go see how Robert Mapplethorpe saw him. Go see how Andy Warhol saw him. Go see how Herb Ritts saw him. He was inspiration for all of these people."

www.taschen.com/en/limited-editions/film/03105/arnold-collector-s-edition

www.schwarzenegger.com

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Images courtesy of Taschen.
Photo credits:
Cover
Arnold Schwarzenegger for the film End of Days. Sante D'Orazio, 1999
Governor Schwarzenegger with the Lincoln Memorial · Photo by Peter Grigsby, 2009
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lulu at his Los Angeles home · Photo by Tracy Nguyen, 2021