Made in France - Signed -
Richard Avedon, Judith Thurman
2001 - Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco - First and only edition, limited to 5000 &lsquo
A clean example of this fine large and fabulous book, signed by Avedon in his typical large scrawl.
Illustrated with 40 tritone and quadrotone plates, text by Richard Avedon and an Essay by Judith Thurman, staff writer for The New Yorker.
‘And if a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up. I know that the accident of my being a photographer has made my life possible.’ - Richard Avedon.
‘These witty, ravishing photographs were taken in the late fifties, when Avedon was still shooting Paris couture for Harper's Bazaar— Suzy Parker, in a Lanvin-Castillo evening dress, bent over a pinball machine at Café des Beaux-Arts; Audrey Hepburn, in Dior, propped up against the bar at Maxim's like a bejewelled fountain pen. Avedon has chosen to reproduce these images not as they first appeared, however, but in facsimiles of the engravers' prints, annotated with grease-pencil scribbles, copyright stamps, and precise, typed labels composed by the editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar, Carmel Snow. "A picture in a magazine is a view without a window," Avedon explains. "Here you have the window—the context of production." It was a shrewd decision: the gritty frames at once lend his fantasies a renewed buoyancy and tether them to the familiar. But perhaps the most haunting vision in this volume—an encounter between deaf-mutes and dancers in a strip club—is to be found in an afterword, written by the photographer, which has the dark power of a Flannery O'Connor story.’ - The New Yorker.
Introduction from the Fraenkel Gallery who hosted the 2001 exhibition of these plates and published this, the accompanying book:-
‘This major new monograph stands as an important rediscovery of a small but central body of work in the career of one of the world's best known and beloved photographers. The Richard Avedon images presented here, many for the first time, were made in Paris for "Harper's Bazaar" during the 1950s. What is particularly special about this presentation is that the images are being reproduced to the exact scale of the engraver's prints made for Avedon by the master printer Andre Gremola, and are uncropped, on their original mounts, with all of the artist's notations on both front and back. Thus, they provide a remarkable portrait of the working methods of one of the most influential fashion photographers in history. This oversized book, measuring 12 x15 inches, is being printed without compromise with tritone plates throughout, and will be a stunning object in its own right. With this body of work, which includes the photographer's iconographic "Dovima with Elephants, Cirque d'Hiver, 1955", Avedon broke radical new ground in the history of photography. He documented the moment in which postwar France was striving through fashion to reclaim its cultural eminence. Judith Thurman, fashion writer for "The New Yorker" contributes the book's introduction.’
Folio (book size 28.7x37.8cm). In publisher’s cloth-backed photographic illustrated boards, spine lettered in black. Condition: Near fine, light wear to edges, and minor toning to cloth spine. Ref: 112108 Price: HK$ 12,000
Illustrated with 40 tritone and quadrotone plates, text by Richard Avedon and an Essay by Judith Thurman, staff writer for The New Yorker.
‘And if a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up. I know that the accident of my being a photographer has made my life possible.’ - Richard Avedon.
‘These witty, ravishing photographs were taken in the late fifties, when Avedon was still shooting Paris couture for Harper's Bazaar— Suzy Parker, in a Lanvin-Castillo evening dress, bent over a pinball machine at Café des Beaux-Arts; Audrey Hepburn, in Dior, propped up against the bar at Maxim's like a bejewelled fountain pen. Avedon has chosen to reproduce these images not as they first appeared, however, but in facsimiles of the engravers' prints, annotated with grease-pencil scribbles, copyright stamps, and precise, typed labels composed by the editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar, Carmel Snow. "A picture in a magazine is a view without a window," Avedon explains. "Here you have the window—the context of production." It was a shrewd decision: the gritty frames at once lend his fantasies a renewed buoyancy and tether them to the familiar. But perhaps the most haunting vision in this volume—an encounter between deaf-mutes and dancers in a strip club—is to be found in an afterword, written by the photographer, which has the dark power of a Flannery O'Connor story.’ - The New Yorker.
Introduction from the Fraenkel Gallery who hosted the 2001 exhibition of these plates and published this, the accompanying book:-
‘This major new monograph stands as an important rediscovery of a small but central body of work in the career of one of the world's best known and beloved photographers. The Richard Avedon images presented here, many for the first time, were made in Paris for "Harper's Bazaar" during the 1950s. What is particularly special about this presentation is that the images are being reproduced to the exact scale of the engraver's prints made for Avedon by the master printer Andre Gremola, and are uncropped, on their original mounts, with all of the artist's notations on both front and back. Thus, they provide a remarkable portrait of the working methods of one of the most influential fashion photographers in history. This oversized book, measuring 12 x15 inches, is being printed without compromise with tritone plates throughout, and will be a stunning object in its own right. With this body of work, which includes the photographer's iconographic "Dovima with Elephants, Cirque d'Hiver, 1955", Avedon broke radical new ground in the history of photography. He documented the moment in which postwar France was striving through fashion to reclaim its cultural eminence. Judith Thurman, fashion writer for "The New Yorker" contributes the book's introduction.’
Folio (book size 28.7x37.8cm). In publisher’s cloth-backed photographic illustrated boards, spine lettered in black. Condition: Near fine, light wear to edges, and minor toning to cloth spine. Ref: 112108 Price: HK$ 12,000