Printed Books & Early American Photography, including Selections from the Larry Ness Collection

11 issues in 10 volumes, 4to. Illustrated with photographs by Pierre Boucher, Germaine Krull, László Moholy-Nagy, Lee Miller, Man Ray, Charles Sheeler, Maurice Tabard, Edward Steichen, and others. Original spiral-bound printed wrappers (light soiling and edgewear, some marginal toning and minor losses, rear cover of 1947 issue partially detached).

A NEAR-COMPLETE RUN OF THE INFLUENTIAL FRENCH PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNAL.

Photographie published its first annual at the end of 1930, featuring the highly influential essay "Photographie Vision du Monde" by art critic Waldemar George (1893-1970), which discusses the history of photography and some of its most important practitioners. The magazine was founded by Charles Peignot, a Parisian graphic designer who in 1927 had established the Arts et Métiers Graphiques magazine, which profiled trends in the graphic arts from around the world. The first issue of Photographie was printed in 1930 and comprised photographs previously published in Arts et Métiers Graphique; for the next ten years, Peignot would publish photography annuals, until the 1940-44 Nazi occupation of France forced him to suspend operations of both publications. A final issue was published in 1947.

Important not only for the photographers included within its pages but also for its documentation of the period between the Great Depression and World War II in Europe, Photographie was later described as "a treasure trove of photographic images by now world-famous photographers, which still retain their validity today—in the sense of a 'new' aesthetic" (W. Mohrhenn and Wilhelm Schürmann in the foreword to the 1983 reprint).