PHOTOGRAPHIE
[Photo 1931]
Philippe Soupault [Essayist]
Philippe Soupault [Essayist]: PHOTOGRAPHIE [PHOTO 1931]. Paris: Arts et Métiers Graphiques, August 1931. First edition. Quarto. Text in French. Thick photographically printed wrappers. Wire spiral binding. 156 [xxx] pp. 124 heliogravure plates. Introductory text. Index. Elaborate—and frankly amazing—period advertisements. Off-white matte wrappers lightly marked, creased and shelfworn. Textblock very good with a few plates lightly offset due to press calibration. A very nice, early copy of this influential and easily-abused series. A very good copy. Rare thus.
"In the photographic camera we have the most reliable aid to the beginning of objective vision . . . " -- L. Moholy-Nagy
9.75 x 12.25 spiral-bound book with 156 pages and 124 Heliogravure reproductions. Photographie was an annual, special issue of the magazine Arts et Métiers Graphiques entirely dedicated to photography. Published under the direction of Charles Peignot, Arts et Metiers Graphiques was famous for its new photographic vision and has become the "Who's Who"of modern photography. Peignot and his friends Jean Cocteau, Maximilain Vox, A. M. Cassandre, Jean Carlu and Paul Colin formed the Paris-based group Union des Artiste Moderne, a group "strongly against anything backward looking."
Photographie published the work of the leading photographers of the period, as well as the work of successful commercial agencies. Many of the articles are illustrated with documentary photographs and film stills.
Contains Heliogravure plates by Alban, Laurie Albin-Guillot [2], R. Barre [3], Herbert Bayer, Aenne Biermann [7], Cecil Beaton [2], Lood Van Bennekom, Mario Von Bucowich, Maurice Cloche [2], Nora Dumas [4], Ecce Photo, Hans Finsler [3], Flannery [3], Fridliand, John Havinden [2], Florence Henri [2], Ewald Hoinkis [2], Hoyningen-Huene [5], Ichac, Kardas, Andre Kertesz [3], Kollar, Kozianka, Germaine Krull [2], Lacheroy, Landau, Le Pennetier, Lucien Lorelle, Eli Lotar [2], Man Ray [4], Marey, Lee Miller, Lázsló Moholy-Nagy, Jean Moral [4], Martin Munkacsi [7], Nevrasoff, Paul Outerbridge [3], Roger Parry, Max Peiffer Wattenpuhl [3], Karin Pellerin [2], Albert Renger-Patzsch [2], Willy Riethof [2], Ringl & Pit, Franz Roh, Charles Scheeler, Emmanuel Sougez [3], Edward Steichen [4], Maurice Tabard [5], Doris Ulmann, Umbo [Otto Umbehr, x 3], Andre Vigneau [3], Lucien Vogel [2], Dr. Weller [3], Ygnatovitch, Willy Zielke [3] And René Zuber [2].
"Our century will be the age of the photograph." --Waldemar George
In 1925, the critic, poet, and one of the founders of Surrealism, Andre Breton, posed the question: when would 'all the books that are worth anything stop being illustrated with drawings and appear only with photographs?’ A few short years after this statement, the photographic image had established itself as one of the most provocative, poetic, and radical forms of representation in modern society. A plethora of groundbreaking exhibitions, books and publicity, the work of some of the most influential figures in history of photography, ushered in the creative flowering of the medium across Europe. Unquestionably the increasingly effective presence of photography was tied to the emergence of these new recruits and their passionate conviction regarding its creative worth. It was out of this hotbed of revolution in the photographic form, that one of the most influential photographic annuals of the 20th century was published in Paris on the 15 March 1930. Photographie began life as a one off special issue of the graphic arts bimonthly magazine Art et Métiers Graphiques (No 16). [Kerry William Purcell]
Heliogravure is praised by conneiseurs the world over, because of the incomparably rich palette of blacks and shades of gray, the breadth of tonal range, and its exquisite expressiveness. Despite these qualities, Heliogravure has pretty much disappeared over the last fifty years: the costly and time-consuming traditional heliogravure technique has been abandoned in favor of cheaper, faster modern industrial printing methods, such as offset and rotogravure.
In the early part of the 20th century, heliogravure was the method of choice for reproductions appearing in high quality books and artistic photographic reproduction. Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) employed the technique for reproducing the photographs appearing in his celebrated quarterly Camera Work, published from 1903 to 1917. Before World War I, many considered heliogravure as an artistic medium in its own right.
Heliogravure belongs to the same family of intaglio printing techniques as engraving, etching and aquatint. As such, it requires an especially good quality of thick paper, one that can draw out the ink from the furthest recesses of the etched copper. In like manner, the plate embosses the finished prints, for its form is impressed into the dampened paper as they pass together through the rollers. Printed by hand in limited quantities, each heliogravure is considered an original, and its value is accordingly assured. [photographie_2018]