Russian Ballet. Camera Studies by Gordon Anthony. With an Introduction by Arnold Haskell - Gordon Anthony

1939 - Geoffrey Bles, London - First Edition
Illustrated with 96 tipped-in black and white photographs of Russian ballet stars, including a frontispiece.

A series of photographic studies of the stars of both Russian ballet companies at the time, including a portrait of the choreographer Michael Fokine, young Serge Lifar, Irina Baronova, Anton Dolin, Alexandra Danilova, Frederick Franklin, Tamara Grigorieva, David Lichine, Alicia Markova, Marc Platoff, Leonide Massine, Mia Slavenska and others.

Gordon Anthony was born James Gordon Dawson Stannus in Wicklow, Ireland on 23 December 1902. He started working in photography in 1926, making images of the students at his sister's ballet school in London. In 1933 he became the portrait photographer to the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford. His photographs helped to make the Royal Ballet known across the world in the 1930s. In 1948, he published the first ever book of colour photography in Great Britain, Studies of Dancers.

Anthony's photographs are held in major collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.
 
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Price HK$ 8,000



Le Paysan de Paris The Peasant of Paris - Signed by Henri Cartier-Bresson - Louis Aragon, Henri Cartier-Bresson

1994 - The Limited editions Club, New York - Number 89 of 300 copies.
‘I was seeking… a new kind of novel that would break all the traditional rules governing the writing of fiction… a novel that the critics would be obliged to approach empty-handed’ – Louis Aragon.

A large (32x42cm) beautiful and superbly produced limited edition folio of Louis Aragon’s outstanding Surrealist novel – in which he compares a poet’s love for his city to a peasant’s love for his land – illustrated and signed by Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of only 300 copies. With the text in English, translated by Simon Watson-Taylor.

Stunningly illustrated with seven original lithographs and a photogravure by Henri Cartier-Bresson. The lithographs were pulled by Bruce Porter at his Trestle Editions studio in New York. The photogravure was printed by Jon Goodman on French-made Arjo Wiggins stock.

Bound in silk and provided with a matching felt lined silk slipcase.
 
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Price HK$ 9,000



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.
 
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Price HK$ 12,000



The Yellow Book - Aubrey Beardsley

April 1894-April 1897 - Elkin Mathews &, London
A complete, clean and better than normally encountered thirteen volume set of this groundbreaking art nouveau publication, in the publisher’s bright yellow illustrated covers with designs by Aubrey Beardsley. Together with ‘A Selection’ published in 1950 and bound in yellow cloth to match the earlier set. Fourteen volumes in total.

From its initial visually arresting issue, for which Aubrey Beardsley was art editor and for which Max Beerbohm wrote an essay, ‘
A Defence of Cosmetics’, ‘The Yellow Book’ attained immediate notoriety.

Published by John Lane and edited by Henry Harland, ‘
The Yellow Book’ attracted many outstanding writers and artists of the era, such as Arnold Bennett, Charlotte Mew, Henry James, Edmund Gosse, Richard Le Gallienne, and Walter Sickert.

Although dominated by the illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley, and his decadent fin de siècle aura, many other distinguished artists contributed to the quarterly, notably Frederic Leighton, Will Rothenstein, Walter Sickert and Philip Wilson Steer; contributors to the text included Max Beerbohm, John Buchan, Baron Corvo, Edmund Gosse, Kenneth Grahame, Henry James, E. Nesbit and W. B. Yeats.
 
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Price HK$ 10,000



The Decisive Moment - Henri Cartier-Bresson

1952 - Simon and Schuster in collaboration with É, New York - First Edition in English
One of the most important photography books of the 20th century, containing 126 full or double page heliogravures, considered ‘unique in providing an international portrait or impression of humanity covering the two decades prior to its publication’. Divided into two chronological and geographical sections: the first spans the years 1932 to 1947 and is made up of photographs taken in the west; the second spans 1947 to 1952 and was shot mostly in the east.

Prefaced by Cartier-Bresson’s 4,500-word philosophical essay, whose keynote ‘
There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment.’ was taken from the 17th century Cardinal de Reitz.

‘The idea of the '
decisive moment' is one of the most enduring in photographic literature, and no one has articulated it better than its coiner, in his preface to this book: 'To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression.’’ - David Levi Strauss.

An elusively fine copy, the book without the commonly found chips to spine, in a superior example of the delicate dust jacket, both showing the striking illustration provided by Cartier-Bresson’s friend Henri Matisse. The original 12 leaf ‘
Captions’ pamphlet laid in, as published. 
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Price HK$ 19,000



The Lines of My Hand - Robert Frank

1972 - Lustrum Press, Los Angeles - First American Edition
‘Robert Frank [1924-2019], one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century, whose visually raw and personally expressive style was pivotal in changing the course of documentary photography’ - New York Times, September 2019.

A fine copy of ‘arguably Robert Frank's most important book alongside
The Americans’ with 86 black and white photographic plates. 
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Price HK$ 3,000



Photographs: Annie Leibovitz 1970-1990 - Signed - Annie Leibovitz

1991 - Harper Collins, New York - Number 60 of 326 signed and numbered copies
One of only 326 limited editions of this iconic work, signed by Annie Leibovitz, considered one of the most important and influential photography books of all time.

Showcasing over 160 of Leibovitz’s best photographs. Scarce, specially bound and slipcased edition.

In 1991, Leibovitz mounted an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. She was the second living portraitist and first woman to show there. This work encompasses a landmark collection of over 225 colour and black and white examples of her work, ‘showcasing her unparalleled ability to capture the essence of her subjects. From iconic celebrity portraits and emotional photographs, it solidifies her status as one of the greatest photographers of her time’. [Blind Magazine, ‘
The 50 Most Influential Photobooks of All time’] 
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Price HK$ 10,000