Frederick Sommer 1939 - 1962 Photographs, First Edition

This is a first edition, first printing of the highly regarded photobook “Frederick Sommer 1939 – 1962 Photographs: Words Not Spent Buy Smaller Images Tomorrow” published by Aperture, New York in 1962. This scarce, early issue of Aperture, closely supervised by Minor White, was Sommer's first monograph and he considered it his best. Sommer was responsible for all aspects of the text, design, image selection and sequencing (save for a brief editor's note by Minor White). Writing in “The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century, David Levi-Strauss says that with the exception of White's somewhat "quirky" text and David Campbell's portrait of Sommer, "this is an almost perfect monograph...Every two-page spread reveals something more about the images through their juxtaposition. And then there is the text. It is very unusual to have writing at this level, uninfected with either sentimentality or pomposity, from an American photographer, but what’s more unusual is to have an artist who makes images and text and can combine them in a way that deepens and extends the effects of each. This early enactment of Sommer's ideas about the workings of linguistic and pictorial logic is a gem."

Containing 30 beautifully printed black and white photographs and measuring approximately 9” x 8”, the book is a soft cover that is saddle stitched and bound in laminated printed wrappers. The book is in FINE- condition with a small shallow crease to the bottom of the rear wrap not affecting any of the pages and very superficial wear to the wraps. All plates are in FINE condition. This is a highly collectible copy of Frederick Sommer’s best monograph.

Cited in both “The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century” by Andrew Roth and “The Photobook: A History”, by Parr and Badger.

Photographs of the book as well as photographs contained in the book appear in the photo section of the listing.