Twenty animals meet for the photographer's beauty contest. On Balthasar Burkhard's portraits all the animals are equally beautiful. The protagonist of the story is a shy donkey watching the cheerful activity. Markus Jakob describes the illustrious rendezvous with kind and humorous words. This publication is a reprint of the beloved children's book, which was first published in 1997. It will be released on the occasion of an extensive retrospective on Burkhard's work opening in October 2017 at Museum Folkwang in Essen, Germany and in February 2018 at Fotostiftung Schweiz in Winterthur, Switzerland. AUTHORS: Balthasar Burkhard (1944–2010) was a Swiss artist and well-known for his large-sized black-and-white photography. Markus Jakob, born 1954, writes features, reports and miscellanea for various media. 22 photographs