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Siskind, Aaron (Photographer); Enyeart, James L. & Chiarenza, Carl (Contributor) : Aaron Siskind: Pleasures And Terrors

New York Graphic Society, New York City, NY, 1982

ISBN 0821215221

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 283 pages. Book-length account on subject, accompanied by photographic plates. The single most important volume on the photographic art of Aaron Siskind published in his lifetime. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. An austerely elegant production by Aaron Siskind and The New York Graphic Society: Oversize-volume format. Brown cloth boards with metallic-silver titles embossed on spine, as issued. Photographs by Aaron Siskind. Foreword by James L. Enyeart. Text by Carl Chiarenza. Printed in duotone on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper in the United States to the highest standards. In pictorial DJ with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Published on the occasion of the retrospective exhibition of the same name held at the Center For Creative Photography Tucson, Arizona in 1982. Presents Aaron Siskind's "Pleasures And Terrors". The one indispensable book on the great photographer. It is also one of very few titles that the reclusive Siskind actively participated in. After a long and restless search, Aaron Siskind finally found his vocation when he was given a camera as a wedding present in 1930. His social-documentary breakthrough, "Harlem Document" (not published until 1981), remains one of the most important works in the photographic canon. An incorrigible experimenter, his work resulted in substantial changes to his style, nourishing and sustaining one of the longest and most productive careers of the 20th century. Siskind's idea of people and place was, as Thomas B. Hess points out, formal and essential rather than specific and accidental, universal expressions of art's significance. Hess also underscores Siskind's seminal contribution to the history of modern Western art: "It's in the formalist area that Siskind's particular genius obtains, his ability to make photography a matter of transcendent aesthetic import. This is what true art is about" (Thomas B. Hess). "To a large degree, he has been responsible for bringing photography into the twentieth century" (Henry Holmes Smith). An absolute "must-have" title for Aaron Siskind collectors. This copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the publisher's Front Presentation Page by Aaron Siskind. This title is a late-modern photography classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws yet command as much as $700. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. 74 duotone, 198 half-tone plates. One of the greatest photographers of the 20th century. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER AARON SISKIND TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0821215221.

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