New York by Alvin Langdon Coburn. With a foreword by H.G. Wells. First edition, with the hand-pulled photogravures.
London: Duckworth & Co., and New York: Brentano's, 1910. Folio. Fine. 16 x 12 inches. Original textured calf spine extending on to the gray-brown boards. Endpapers possbily later. With 18 of 20 hand-pulled photogravures. See collation below. Plates and binding in fine condition. Printed by Ballantyne & Company Limited, Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London. "The Photogravures in this Volume are from Plates prepared by the Artist, and printed under his Personal Supervision"....Literature
Aperture, Alvin Langdon Coburn: Symbolist Photographer 1882-1966, pp. 14, 40, 41, 47, 64
Edition Stemmle, Alvin Langdon Coburn, pp. 92, 95, 99, 101, 103, 106, 108
Foster, S.J. et al., Imagining Paradise, Steidl/George Eastman House, Gottingen/Rochester, 2007, p. 226.
Goldschmidt, Truthful Lens, The Grolier Club, New York, 1980, 36.....
List of Plates:
(1) The Metropolitan Tower [19.2 x 8.6 cm]
(2) Brooklyn Bridge, From a Roof-Top [19.8 x 14.5 cm]
(3) The Battery [15.8 x 15.5 cm]
(4) Williamsburg Bridge [19.2 x 15.2 cm]
(5) The Holland House [20.0 x 14.5 cm]
(6) Broadway at Night [20.1 x 14.9 cm]
(8) The Flat-Iron [19.9 x 14.2 cm]
(9) The Water Front [15.2 x 15.4 cm]
(10) The Singer Building, Noon [20.7 x 6.2 cm]
(11) The Ferry [13.7 x 17.8 cm]
(12) The Tunnel-Builders [19.2 x 15.9 cm]
(13) The Knickerbocker Trust Company [18.9 x 15.4 cm]
(14) The Chinese Quarter [20.1 x 14.6 cm]
(15) The Unfinished Bridge [14.4 x 16.1 cm]
(16) The Singer Building, Twilight [19.6 x 10.4 cm]
(17) The Stock Exchange [19.8 x 13.9 cm]
(18) Fifth Avenue, From the St. Regis [18.7 x 14.9 cm]
(20) The Park Row Building [20.4 x 15.8 cm]; LACKING (7) Brooklyn Bridge, From the River [8.9 x 17.6 cm]; (19) The Sky-Line [10.6 x 17.7 cm]..... In America, Coburn worked for a year with Gertrude Käsebier and joined the Photo-Secession founded by Alfred Stieglitz. In 1906, the Royal Photographic Society invited the young American to give a one-man show in London, for which George Bernard Shaw wrote the catalog preface. This established Coburn’s fame in England where, throughout the first two decades of the century, the photographer worked indefatigably and with success, producing memorable portraits of celebrities, revolutionary landscapes and abstract compositions. Despite never giving up photography, in the 1920s Coburn retired to Wales and lived a contemplative, inner life pursuing mysticism and freemasonry until his death in 1966...As well as portraiture, Coburn was also exploring cityscapes and photographed famous London landmarks such as Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey and Tower Bridge in a romantic and impressionistic style. They were published in his book London (1909), which was followed by a book of New York scenes a year later. His most famous book, however, was a collection of his portraits, Men of Mark (1913).
Coburn left the USA permanently in 1912 and relocated to London before later settling in North Wales. While living in London, he became attracted to Vorticism, an offshoot of Cubism, which used bold lines and angular shapes to create abstract representations of subjects. This style was radically different from his previous work, but he believed photographers had become entrenched in familiar styles and should try something new. Item #16-4179
Price: $9,500.00